Before heading into the ultra-high-pressure Test campaign – Ashes 2019 in England, Australian players will feature in a four-day intra-squad match lead by Travis Head and Tim Paine in Southampton next week. The 12-man squads will be coached by Graeme Hick and Brad Haddin.
The pre-Ashes trial match would be pivotal for the Australian players to find a place in the Ashes 2019 squad as they will compete for the places in the national squad for the Test series.
Before the crucial match, Hick and Haddin picked their Playing XI for the match with picking Paine and Head as their respective captains on Friday, 19th July.
While Hick has picked Australia stars Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon and Peter Handscomb in his team while Haddin has the players like David Warner, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in his XII.
As per reports in cricket.com.au, Cummins stated: “It'll definitely get the adrenaline up like in a Test match.”
The 26-year-old fast bowler said that the ego will be on the line in the pre-Ashes trial match between the teams in Southampton. He signed off by saying, “It doesn't happen too often - you'll see our egos be put to the test, we'll be going at each other I think. Usually, after a few weeks on tour, a few blokes will cop it from other blokes, airing their grievances over the tour.”
Graeme Hick XII:
Joe Burns, Cameron Bancroft, Steve Smith, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (c, wk), Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Chris Tremain, Nathan Lyon
Brad Haddin XII:
David Warner, Marcus Harris, Kurtis Patterson, Travis Head (c), Marnus Labuschagne, Will Pucovski, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Peter Siddle, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland
(With cricket.com.au Inputs)
