No surprises in Aussie Ashes' Squads

There were no real surprises in the Ashes ODI and Test squads named by Australia earlier today. With so few players at elite level, even in Australia, there is very little room for a surprise inclusion.

A 14 player squad was named for the three match ODI series :-

Rachel Haynes, Alex Blackwell, Kristen Beams, Nicole Bolton, Lauren Cheatle, Ash Gardner, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Tahlia McGrath, Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani and Amanda-Jade Wellington.

Both Cheatle and McGrath are coming back from injuries, and only played one of the two WNCL games for their respective states last weekend. Both are pace bowlers, but their preparation for an Ashes series looks underdone. Their selection is as the expense of Sarah Aley and Belinda Vakarewa from the WWC squad, and as back-ups to Perry and Schutt.

The same 14 names are included in the 15 player Ashes Test squad. The only addition is the reinstatement of Vakarewa, who also only played one game out of two in the WNCL at the weekend.

Cricket Australia have also named their team (CAXI) to play in two warm-up games against England prior to the first ODI. It is effectively the Australia Academy team. Whereas England chose to load their Academy warm-up team against Australia before the 2015 Ashes series with contracted players (seven of them), Australia have not been so obliging. There are no contracted players in the CAXI thirteen, who are :-

Hayleigh Brennan, Nicola Carey, Piepa Cleary, Heather Graham, Alana King, Katie Mack, Sophie Molineux, Georgia Redmayne, Naomi Stalenberg, Molly Strano (c), Rachel Trenaman, Belinda Vakarewa, Tayla Vlaeminck.

MD
10/X/17