South Australia batter Nathan McSweeney has received his maiden international call-up for the first Border-Gavaskar Test. But how and why was he picked?
On Sunday (November 10), Australia announced a 13-man squad for the first Test against India, which begins in Perth on November 22. Two uncapped players have been named – McSweeney and wicketkeeper Josh Inglis.
McSweeney was one of four batters in the frame to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order, the other three being Marcus Harris, Cameron Bancroft and 19-year-old Sam Konstas.
McSweeney is the only one of the four who does not open the batting regularly in first-class cricket. In fact, his push to the top for Australia A in the second of the two-match series against India A last week was his first outing opening the batting in first-class cricket.
Konstas was part of the Australia U19 side that won the World Cup earlier this year, and last month became the youngest since Ricky Ponting to score two centuries in the same first-class match, for New South Wales against South Australia. He has scored 302 runs so far in the 2024-25 Sheffield Shield, averaging 75.5.
Aged 32 and 31, Harris and Bancroft have opened the batting in Test cricket before, 26 and 18 times respectively, giving them the potential edge of experience over both Konstas and McSweeney.
However, McSweeney has been in excellent form for South Australia this season, with 291 runs in four innings at an average of 97, batting at No.3. He also top-scored in each innings of the first match against India A, although those two knocks came from No.4.
National selection panel chair George Bailey pointed at these performances when announcing the squad: "Nathan has displayed the attributes we believe will equip him well for Test cricket along with a strong recent record in domestic cricket.
"His performances for South Australia and Australia A weighed in his favour and supports our view he is ready for the opportunity at Test level."
Bailey did address why McSweeney had been chosen despite his limited experience opening the batting: "I don't think it's a huge adjustment to go from three to opening. In the 15 or so games that (he) has batted at three for South Australia, I think he's been in before the 10th over about 20 times. So he's had plenty of experience (facing the new ball).
"Over the last 12 or 15 months, we're seeing a player whose growth is on a great trajectory. He's a very organised, composed player at the crease and think he's got a game that will really suit Test cricket."
This follows a pattern in recent years of Australia pushing players up the order to open, rather than relying on specialists as most other Test teams do – Usman Khawaja, Travis Head and Steve Smith have all been called upon to do so after essaying middle-order roles, with Khawaja making the switch permanently.
Bailey also had complimentary words for all three of Harris, Bancroft and Konstas, offering words of support by saying, "It's a tough one because I think whenever the information is first given, it potentially feels hollow that they've been overlooked again. But it's just to be really clear to them that by not being selected isn't us saying that we don't think you're a good player.
"We just have to make a decision on who we think is going to fit that role best and at the moment, we think that's Nathan."
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