Sam Konstas is going to come in the place of Nathan McSweeney in the remaining matches of Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 and will become the youngest Test debutant for Australia in more than 70 years
Australia’s young opener Nathan McSweeney is going to now miss the remaining two Tests of ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 after he made his debut in Perth Test. McSweeney has played six innings and has scored 10, 0, 39, 10*, 9, and 4. Him missing out on the series will now result in 19-year-old opener Sam Konstas.
Teenager Konstas is all set to become the youngest Test batting debutant for Australia in more than 70 years. The right-hander will be Australia’s youngest Test debutant after current captain Pat Cummins, who made his debut in 2011 at the age of 18 years 193 days.
Konstas will enter the dressing room with an undefeated 73 against India A last month, along with 107 in the Prime Minister’s XI pink-ball warm-up match.
“Sam gets a call up to the Test squad for the first time. His style of batting offers a point of difference and we look forward to watching his game develop further,” Chair of Selectors George Bailey said.
“We remain confident Nathan has the ability and temperament to succeed at Test level in the future. It was a difficult decision to leave him out. It has clearly been a challenge at the top of the order for batters throughout the series and we want to provide the option of a different line up for the next two matches,” Bailey added.
Pacer Jhye Richardson has also been taken in since he has come back from a miserable run of alignments that troubled him since last Test match, the 2021-22 Ashes.
Australia squad for final two Border-Gavaskar Tests:
Pat Cummins (c), Travis Head (vc), Steve Smith (vc), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
