Australia pick 3 uncapped players for New Zealand T20Is

Cricket Australia (CA) on Wednesday (Jan 27) announced their 18-member squad for the upcoming tour of New Zealand. As part of this tour, both these teams are scheduled to play 5 T20I matches starting from February 22.

The Australian team will be led by Aaron Finch and has the likes of Matthew Wade, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis in its ranks. The bowling unit will be strengthened by the presence of quality spinners Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar. It’s been a while since Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff played an international match owing to injuries and they might be playing in this upcoming tour if proven fit.

On the other hand, head coach Justin Langer will be on South Africa tour during the same period as this series. This made Australia pick Andrew McDonald as head coach of Australia for this New Zealand T20I series.

Tanveer Sangha (Thunder), Josh Phillippe (Sixers) and Riley Meredith (Hurricanes) are the three uncapped players in Australia’s T20I squad to the New Zealand tour. It would be interesting if any of these players would get to make their T20I debut for Australia in this 5-match tour.

Meanwhile, Australia will be without their mainstays David Warner and Steven Smith in this series. It can be explained with the concurrent planning of the 3-match Test series in South Africa.

Australia’s squad for NZ T20Is: Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade (vc), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith (uncapped), Josh Philippe (uncapped), Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha (uncapped), D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa

Australia tour of New Zealand 2021 schedule:

T20I #1: Feb 22, New Zealand vs Australia. Venue: Hagley Oval, Christchurch
T20I #2: Feb 25, New Zealand vs Australia. Venue: University Oval, Dunedin
T20I #3: Mar 3, New Zealand vs Australia. Venue: Wellington Regional Stadium, Wellington
T20I #4: Mar 5, New Zealand vs Australia. Venue: Eden Park, Auckland
T20I #5: Mar 7, New Zealand vs Australia. Venue: Bay Oval, Mount Mauganui