Coulter-Nile and Mitchell Marsh new faces in Oz CT squad

Melbourne, May 1 (IANS):

Australia have named their 15-man squad for this year’s ICC Champions Trophy to be held in England and Wales from June 6 to 23.

There are only two new faces in the squad: medium-fast bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsman Nathan Coulter-Nile and the highly promising West Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh.

The Twenty20 Tasmanian captain George Bailey is Michael Clarke‘s new deputy, and he replaces wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade.

Australia have won the previous two Champions Trophy tournaments, in 2006 in India and in South Africa in 2009.

Australia, who play their first match against England at Edgbaston June 8, have New Zealand and Sri Lanka as the other teams in Group A.

Though they are third on the ICC rankings, Australia are just three ratings points behind top-ranked India and the bookmakers have them as joint favourites alongside South Africa to win the trophy one last time as this is going to be the last Champions Trophy.

The squad:

Michael Clarke (captain), George Bailey (vice-captain), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Phil Hughes, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Shane Watson.