Australian cricket team. (Cricket Australia)
Though Australia did manage to win the Border Gavaskar Trophy after a decade there has been concern about the age profile of the players. When the side fielded their playing XI in Sydney the age group of the players was at either end of the spectrum. While Sam Konstas was 19-year-old all the members of the team were over 30 years.
“There’s not one player in their 20s in that team. You’ve got one at 19 and everyone else over 30. That’s going to be the next challenge for this Australian group. That’s going to be the next challenge for this Australian group, not just for the Australian team, but for Australian cricket is to bring on this new group of young players. There’s not many opportunities that present themselves,” Ricky Ponting said to ICC.
The side did hand debut to Nathan McSweeney who was 25-year-old in Perth however, he struggled to cope against Jasprit Bumrah and was dropped for the Boxing Day Test. With Australia already qualifying for the World Test Championship final Pointing would suggest that the transition of the team can be started against Sri Lanka and West Indies.
“We’ve got a tour to Sri Lanka, and then the West Indies are coming up before the Ashes next summer. If they want to bring young players in, it probably needs to start in Sri Lanka and the West Indies. And if you’re bringing young players into the Sri Lankan tour, that won’t be an easy place for anyone to start.”
However, apart from Usman Khawaja the rest of the batting order did manage to chip in at various times for the hosts through the series. The likes of Mitchell Marsh who did not have a score to speak off was dropped from the side for the Sydney Test and 31-year-old Beau Webster was added who did have an impressive debut. As per bowling while Josh Hazlewood has injury concerns the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Scott Boland and Nathan Lyon did bowl well.
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