Head, Marsh to lead Australia A squads in India

Cricket Australia (CA) on Wednesday named Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh as leaders of Australia A sides touring India for a triangular ODI series, also involving South Africa A and two four-day matches in August-September.

Head will lead the one-day team, while Marsh has been named the captain of the four-day team that will take on India A in two four-day matches.

The squads with Alex Carey as the vice-captain and first-choice wicket-keeper in both have a fair sprinkling of Australia internationals and, apart from Carey and Head, Ashton Agar, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Michael Neser, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson and Chris Tremain feature in both line-ups.

Just six of the players across the two sides have never played international cricket -- Marnus Labuschagne, Jack Wildermuth, Brendan Doggett, Swepson, Kurtis Patterson and Neser, who earned a maiden national call-up on Tuesday as Josh Hazlewood's replacement for the limited-overs tour of England.

Commenting on the leadership group for the tour, a point of interest keeping in mind events in Australian cricket since the events in Cape Town earlier this year, Trevor Hohns, the national selector, said: "We're looking for leaders for future Australian teams, and Travis, Mitch and Alex are all very impressive young men."

"Travis and Mitch both have captaincy experience at state level, and this is an exciting opportunity for them to lead a new group of players in different conditions. Alex, as our Twenty20 vice-captain in the UK and Zimbabwe, is also someone we rate very highly as a leader, and this is another opportunity for him to develop those skills," he added.

--IANS

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