Khawaja axed; Labuschangne, Burns among six new faces to land CA contracts

Senior batsmen Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh missed out but the fast-rising Marnus Labuschagne and Joe Burns were rewarded for their performances in Cricket Australia's annual player contracts announced on Thursday.

The list, which has come later than scheduled due to the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, features six new faces for the 2020-21 season -- Mitchell Marsh, Ashton Agar, Burns, Labuschagne, Kane Richardson and Matthew Wade to the list.

"Marnus's rise has been meteoric and well-documented, Joe has been a good test match player, Ashton Agar's form in T20 internationals has been exceptional, while Kane Richardson has been outstanding in the 20-over and one-day games," Chief selector Trevor Hohns said in a statement on Thursday.

The 33-year-old Khawaja, who missed out for the first time in five years, didn't feature in any Test for Australia since losing his place after the third Test against England in August last year.

Besides Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Marcus Harris, and Shaun Marsh were also not included as Cricket Australia named 20 players in its new centrally-contracted list.

"Matthew Wade's summer showed he is not only a tough but a good test player for us. His form extended into white ball cricket late in the summer, earning him well deserved call-ups to the one-day and T20 Australian squads."
"Mitch proved this with his man of the match performance against New Zealand at the SCG in the last game Australia played and a five-wicket haul in the last Test match he played on the Ashes tour."
CA men's contract list: Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa