Steve Smith will lead Australia in the Tests in Sri Lanka, to be played at Galle from January 29 and February 6. A Cricket Australia release mentioned that Test captain Pat Cummins is on paternity leave a well as “focusing on an ankle issue which was managed through the Test summer”.

Smith had led Australia 34 times before he was stripped of the role in 2018 in the aftermath of the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa in early 2018. However, once the ban was lifted, he has been vice-captain to Cummins, and has led Australia four times in Cummins’s absence – against England in 2021-22, against the West Indies in 2022-23 (both at Adelaide), and in India in 2022-23 (at Indore and Ahmedabad).

Fast bowler Josh Hazlewood is still recovering from the calf injury he had sustained during the Test series against India, and has also been rested. Mitchell Marsh has also been “omitted”. The release mentions that both will be “focussing on the Champions Trophy", which immediately follows the Sri Lanka tour.

The squad includes three uncapped cricketers. Josh Inglis has been the reserve Test wicketkeeper for some time, and even has a World Test Championship medal without playing Test cricket. Sean Abbott has filled the third seamer’s role in the absence of Cummins and Hazlewood in white-ball, though he is unlikely to start if Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland are fit.

All-rounder Cooper Connolly, the 21-year-old batter who bowls some left-arm spin, completes the trio, effectively putting the 36-year-old Glenn Maxwell’s hopes for a Test return to an end.

Sam Konstas and Beau Webster have been retained after the impressive starts to their careers against India. Nathan McSweeney, who had been dropped during the series, has been recalled. To support Nathan Lyon, the selectors have recalled Todd Murphy and Matt Kuhnemann, completing the three spin-attack from the 2022-23 tour of India. While Murphy has played since then (mostly when Lyon had an injury), Kuhnemann has not.

Australia squad for Tests in Sri Lanka:

Steve Smith (c), Alex Carey (wk), Josh Inglis (wk), Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Nathan Lyon, Todd Murphy, Matt Kuhnemann, Cooper Connolly, Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Mitchell Starc

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