ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Australia announce 15-man squad; James Pattinson gets surprise nod
Australia has announced their 15-man squad for the 2017 Champions Trophy to be held in England in June. The 15-man squad will be led by Steve Smith and sees a group, heavy on pace and light on spin, which will now have the job to help reclaim the crown that they last won in 2009 in South Africa.
The batting core will revolve around Smith, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Chris Lynn, who is at the moment recovering from a shoulder injury and Moises Henriques, who will provide an all-round option for the team.
The wicket-keeping duties will be taken up by Matthew Wade, who has become a permanent part of the side in both Tests and ODIs. The fast bowling responsibilities will be shouldered by Mitchell Starc, who will be joined by Josh Hazlewood, a bowler you will say would be ideal for those conditions in the early part of the summer and they will be backed by Pat Cummins, who has had a good IPL so far.
Also in the squad are James Pattinson, who last played an ODI for Australia in 2015, incidentally in England, John Hastings, who also played in the limited-overs leg of that tour and Marcus Stoinis, who will be depended upon for some lusty hitting down the order.
The selectors have gone for just the one spinner in the form of Adam Zampa and providing him with the support in that department will be Glenn Maxwell, who will provide the off-spin option.
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The one well-known omission from the squad is James Faulkner and revealing the reasoning behind that decision, Cheif Selector Trevor Hohns said that because they had decided to opt for a pace-heavy attack, they could not include the all-rounder in their squad.
"James has been a consistent performer for the one-day squad for several years, however with players such as Pattinson, Cummins and Hastings coming back to full fitness and the emergence of Marcus Stoinis, James was squeezed out of the squad and an unlucky omission.
"We are in a very fortunate position at the moment with a large number of quality players available for selection, as such this was a very difficult team to choose and there have been some unlucky players on this occasion," he said.
Australia are in Pool B with New Zealand, England and Bangladesh. They begin their campaign against Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand at Edgbaston on the 2nd of June. Prior to that, they will take on Sri Lanka and Pakistan in two warm-up matches on the 27th and the 29th of May.
Australia squad for Champions Trophy: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa