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Jack Edwards, Will Sutherland, Aaron Hardie named for Australia A against England Lions

New South Wales allrounder Jack Edwards has been named captain of a youthful Australia A 12-man squad to face England Lions in the upcoming four-day game in Sydney, with the squad also featuring two other fast bowling allrounders in Aaron Hardie and Will Sutherland.

Kurtis Patterson, 31, has also been recalled to the Australia A fold for the first time since 2020 and is the oldest player in the squad. Australia’s selectors have pushed for youth and have only retained five players from the squad that faced India A in two four-day games in October and November, with Jordan Buckingham, Fergus O’Neill, Josh Philippe, Corey Rocchiccioli Brendan Doggett all getting another opportunity, although Doggett was only drafted into that series as a late injury replacement.

There was no room for Marcus Harris, Jimmy Peirson or Nathan McAndrew, who performed solidly in the second Australia A game in Melbourne. Former Test batters Matt Renshaw or Peter Handscomb were also not selected. The latter was very close to being selected for the Sri Lanka Test tour and is currently captaining the Cricket Australia XI against England Lions in the first match of the tour in Brisbane.

Cameron Bancroft is unavailable through injury after fracturing his shoulder in the BBL. Veteran two-Test seamer Michael Neser, who injured his hamstring in the Australia A game at the MCG has also not been selected.

The selectors showed how much they valued performances in the Australia A matches during the Test series against India with Nathan McSweeney, Sam Konstas and Beau Webster all selected for their Test debuts after good performances against India A. Doggett was also called into the Test squad for the second and third Tests as fast bowling cover following his stunning 6 for 15 against India A in Mackay.

CA contracted fast bowler Xavier Bartlett gets an opportunity after missing the two Australia A matches with a side injury. He took 5 for 32 in his last first-class match for Queensland before the BBL break.

By overlooking Harris, Renshaw and Handscomb, the selectors are looking to the future on the batting front with the exception of Patterson. Jayden Goodwin and Tim Ward, like Patterson, have been rewarded for outstanding recent Shield form despite all three not being in the first-choice XI’s of their respective states early in the Shield summer.

Ward, 26, played four matches for Australia A against New Zealand A in 2023 and made three half-centuries in eight innings but was dropped by Tasmania last last season. However he has bounced back strongly with scores of 51, 92, 96, 7 and 142 since being recalled by Tasmania in November.

Goodwin, 23, is currently playing in the CA XI alongside Ward and is highly regarded by the nationals selectors despite only averaging 32.38 across 27 first-class innings. But he made scores of 94, 139 and 69 in Shield cricket in November with the latter two coming against South Australia in a pink-ball game which featured Doggett and Australian white-ball pacer Spencer Johnson.

Hardie is the only member of the Australia A squad who is also in Australia’s Champions Trophy squad. He has not been bowling recently due to an ongoing quad issue and has only played one first-class match this summer after a lean season with the bat last year in red-ball cricket. But he has scored a century for Australia A previously in New Zealand in 2023.

Sutherland, 25, is the only full-time Shield captain in the squad but Edwards captained NSW in three Shield games prior to the BBL break, standing in for the absent Moises Henriques, and is NSW’s permanent 50-over captain. It will be the first time Edwards has represented Australia A, having played all 37 of his first-class matches for NSW, averaging 28.21 with the bat and 26.69 with the ball.

Australia A squad: Jack Edwards (c), Xavier Bartlett, Brendan Doggett, Jordan Buckingham, Jayden Goodwin, Aaron Hardie, Fergus O’Neill, Kurtis Patterson, Josh Philippe (wk), Corey Rocchiccioli , Will Sutherland, Tim Ward

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