• Australia XI make two changes

    Cricket Australia (CA) today advised two changes to the Cricket Australia XI squad that will play South Africa in a T20 tour match on 2 November at North Sydney Oval.

    Western Australian paceman Joel Paris has been withdrawn from the squad due to a quad injury sustained in the One-Day Cup Final on Sunday, while Queensland’s Ben McDermott has been released from the squad in order to play for the Bulls in their Sheffield Shield match this weekend.

    The vacancies will be filled by two promising youngsters in the form of Victorian fast-bowler Ben Ashkenazi, a 20-year-old who represented Australia at the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the UAE earlier this year, and batsman Damien Mortimer from New South Wales. He’s just 19-years-old and represented Australia at Under-19 level alongside Ashkenazi in the UAE.

    South Africa are also expected to field young side that could include Kagiso Rabada who took six wickets against Australia in the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup. It will also see JP Duminy take the reins, while regular captain Faf du Plessis and other senior players such as AB de Villers and Dale Steyn are being rested ahead of the five-match ODI series against Australia.

    The CA XI squad for the tour match is:

    Ashton Turner (Capt), Ben Ashkenazi, James Bazley, Jake Doran, Sebastian Gotch, Damien Mortimer, James Muirhead, James Peirson, Clive Rose, Matthew Short, Kelvin Smith, Timm Van der Gugten.

    The South African squad for the T20I series in Australia:

    Jean-Paul Duminy (Capt), Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock, Marchant de Lange, Reeza Hendricks, Imran Tahir, Ryan McLaren, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Robin Peterson, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw, David Wiese.

    Photo: Backpagepix

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