Australia announces squad for New Zealand Test series starting on 29th February

The Australian team will be heading to New Zealand after the completion of the T20I series against the West Indies to play against the black caps. This is one of the biggest rivalries in cricket history which has been on for a long time. This is the battle of the Tasmanians that everyone is looking forward to for a long time. There is a lot of history between the two sides involving some great and memorable matches that we have witnessed in the past. The Aussies have already announced their T20I squad for the series which is going to be led by Australia’s star all-rounder Mitchell Marsh along with some great T20 players in the setup.

The Test matches will also be looked as to where the World champions will finally play their first away series this season. There are some big matchups ahead of this series which include great players like Steven Smith and Kane Williamson who have the same number of centuries in international cricket right now. The Kiwis have not announced their squad yet and are currently playing a 2 match Test series against South Africa where they have already won the First Test convincingly with records broken by Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra.

The Aussie Test side announced some surprising inclusions

The side will be led by Pat Cummins and the squad will be featuring the likes of Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head as usual. The fast-bowling trio of Mitchell Starc, Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will also be a huge part of the series from the looks of it. Apart from this, there have been some interesting inclusions on the side as well. With the return of Michael Neser who will be making a return in the side after 2 years. Neser has only played 2 Test matches during his career and has somewhat decent performances with the ball, but didn’t have a great time with the bat. However, he will have enough confidence after his great performances for the Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League and will want to prove himself in the longest format as well.

Another player who is also making a return to the side is Scott Boland who has impressed everyone with his accuracy in the past already especially in the WTC final. These two players might not be that young any more with Neser being 33 and Boland at 34 years of age, but they are still capable of performing for their side and have proved themselves in the past as well. The inclusions of both these players might be a plan by the Australians since the conditions in New Zealand are also slightly overcast and these two being great seam bowlers will enjoy these conditions.