Sydney, 7 August

Promising Australian openers Sam Konstas and Nathan McSweeney, who made their debut against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year, were on Thursday named in the 'A' squad that will play two four-day matches against India's A side in Lucknow next month.

Konstas had replaced McSweeney during the last India-Australia series Down Under but failed to nail his spot at the top of the order. He endured a disappointing outing in the Caribbean even as his side thoroughly dominated the West Indies.

The 19-year-old Konstas is the only current Test player to be named in the 'A' side while the other capped players include McSweeney, Cooper Connolly and spinner Todd Murphy.

Konstas had made quite an impression on his debut in the Melbourne Test, scoring a aggressive half century and getting shoulder-barged by Indian superstar Virat Kohli. He later got into verbal spats with other Indian players as well but they could not live up to the early promise.

He was sent back from a two-Test series against Sri Lanka to play in the Sheffield Shield after failing to find a place in the playing XI.

Murphy, who has so far featured in seven Tests, played each of the four matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy during their India tour in 2022-23, claiming 14 wickets in the rubber which Australia lost 1-2.

Australia's chairman of selectors George Bailey was quoted as saying by 'cricket.com.au', "The subcontinent provides many unique challenges and the opportunity to utilise different skills with bat and ball."

"We hope repeated experiences in these conditions will assist players in developing an effective method and understanding of their game for future subcontinent tours.

"For many of these players we remain interested in the development of their short-form cricket as well, but balancing out priorities meant we wanted them back and available for the start of the Sheffield Shield season," he added.

A notable miss in the red-ball squad are Jason Sangha, who scored 202 not out against Sri Lanka A in Darwin last month, and Matthew Renshaw, who too has the experience of playing Tests in India.

The two four-day matches will be played in Lucknow from September 16-19 and September 23-26, while the three one-day games will be on 30 September, 3 and 5 October respectively.