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The PM XI’s match is a four-day day-night first-class fixture starting on November 23 and is being used by the touring team as a warm-up for the two-Test series which begins in Perth on November 30.
It is the first of effectively two Australia A fixtures that will be played this summer with another against South Africa in December. ESPNcricinfo understands that a range of players will be used across the two matches with the bowlers likely to be rotated. Both Swepson and Richardson could yet play for Australia A against South Africa in December. Swepson will also have a four-day red-ball Sheffield Shield fixture to play in for Queensland against South Australia at Adelaide Oval while the PM’s XI match is going on in Canberra, where he is likely to do a lot more bowling.
But it is instructive that both Agar and Murphy have been named given Australia’s Test team will tour India next year for four Tests in February and March.
Swepson took 10 wickets at 45.80 and struck at 89.20 in his four recent Test appearances as the second spinner alongside Nathan Lyon. He did bowl better than those figures suggested at times, particularly in Sri Lanka, but his wrist spin was less effective at times than finger spin in those conditions.
Agar was a chance to play in the most recent Test series in Sri Lanka until he suffered a significant side strain. Agar has not played Test cricket since 2017 and hasn’t played first-class cricket since April 2021 due to his commitments with Australia’s limited-overs sides. He has a middling first-class record overall averaging 41.28 and striking at 80.7. In the four Test matches he has played he has one less wicket than Swepson, averaging 45.55 and strikes at 97.1 but does have a slightly better economy rate.
“I would envisage the tour to India may have some different names to it than what the tour does over the [Australian] summer, just because of the conditions,” Bailey said. “They are every chance to be very different. Because it’s an away tour you take a slightly bigger squad anyway. Plus it’s at the back of a [home] summer and there’s a reasonable amount of cricket that would have been played by then.”
“Pete remains absolutely on our radar,” Bailey said. “He was selected on the Australia A tour to Sri Lanka in the winter, [but missed it due to] having a baby at the same time. He’s started the season fantastically and finished the last Shield year fantastically.”
Prime Minister’s XI squad vs West Indies: Josh Inglis (capt), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Aaron Hardie, Marcus Harris, Henry Hunt, Todd Murphy, Michael Neser, Matt Renshaw, Mark Steketee