Aaron Finch, Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne will all make their Australia Test debuts against Pakistan when the two-match series gets under way in Dubai on Sunday.
The former pair have been capped in white-ball cricket, while Labuschagne prepares to make his international bow as head coach Justin Langer undertakes a mass overhaul of the top order following the Newlands ball-tampering scandal.
In the wake of that saga, Australia is without the suspended Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft, prompting a big reshuffle in the batting line-up that sees a host of new faces come into the fold.
Matt Renshaw does not make the XI from the 15-man squad, while Peter Siddle has edged out Michael Neser for the second seamer spot and will make his first Test appearance in almost two years.
Finch, Head and Labuschagne join Marsh brothers Sean and Mitchell and Usman Khawaja in Australia's top six, while Siddle partners Mitchell Starc in the seam ranks with Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland offering spin options to captain and wicketkeeper Tim Paine, who explained Renshaw's absence.
"The decision was made that he just hadn't played enough cricket," Paine said.
"Marnus has played quite a bit of cricket on the A tour and he's in really good form and he deserves a chance.
"[Renshaw] has had a bit of an unlucky run with injury, he missed a game in India [on the A tour] and then got hit on the head and couldn't bat in the [tour] game."
Paine added: "We think Sidds [Siddle] has been playing quite a bit of cricket, he's in good form. We knew he was playing really good cricket in the lead-up.
"We just thought we'd give Nes a chance to play in that tour game to get some cricket into him.
"And with the conditions over here, we thought it was important he had a game under his belt in case we need him in the second game, in case anything happens to any of our quicks in this game."
Comments
SHARE