Sri Lanka Tour: Australian squads announced

Andrew McDonald’s first tour as Australia’s permanent head coach has been marked by significant improvements in all three formats.

Pat Cummins will lead a 16-man squad to Galle for the two-Test series, while Aaron Finch will oversee an enlarged white-ball squad.

Marcus Harris has been left out of the Test squad entirely after losing his place at the top of the order to Usman Khawaja during the Australian summer.

Cummins will be absent from the T20 leg in order to prepare for the Tests and ODIs, while Adam Zampa will be out due to the birth of his first child.

Following Justin Langer’s departure, Andrew McDonald took over on interim grounds in Pakistan, winning the Test series as part of the World Test Championship and taking the sole T20I in a victorious tour.

Despite rumors and pleas for him to be selected for the Test portion of the tour, Glenn Maxwell is a white ball player who has been picked in ODI and T20I squads.

With crucial World Test Championship points on the line, the tourists can ill-afford a repeat of their 3-0 clean sweep of Sri Lanka in 2016.

At the second Test of the series, the Australians were bowled out for 106 and 183 runs in Galle, finally losing by 229 runs.

The tourists fared better in white-ball cricket, winning both the T20I and ODI series easily.

The tour is one of three overseas visits planned for the Australian squad in 2022, which will also visit India in October for the Border-Gavaskar series.

Two one-day and four-day matches will be played in Sri Lanka by an Australian A squad.

Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.

ODI squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.

T20I Squad: Aaron Finch (c) Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner, Matthew Wade.