Sydney: Cricket Australia announced a 17-member squad for India Tour on Thursday. They have come up with a big surprise by going up with four spin-bowling options with Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith alongside Nathan Lyon and Xavier Doherty.
"This squad has the flexibility that will be required for the varying conditions expected in India and it will provide valuable experience to a number of young players. This squad is having a spin bowling all-rounder in the form of Maxwell and a medium-fast all-rounder in Moises Henriques. Our main criterion was to have a depth in bowling so that we don’t fell short on sub-continental wickets and we are very much expecting the pitches to be rank-turners so going with four spinners will give lot of strength to bowling department.” said national selector of Australian Cricket team John Inverarity, according to media reports.
Meanwhile Australian captain has said in a press conference that India were no longer invincible at home and England have set a perfect example for that. “Going in with specialist spinners, we make sure that we will do well in upcoming series.”
The pace battery looks far better than England pace attack. Mitchell Johnson will lead the Australian pace-attack along with the likes of Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Jackson Bird who had a pretty good home season against the top sides of South Africa and Sri Lanka in the Test series.
Dynamic opener David Warner was also named for the India’s tour despite having a fractured left-thumb which has forced him out of Australia's first two ODI’s against the West Indies on Friday and Sunday. Doherty's recent form also saw him selected. "We certainly feel he is much improved in the longer format of the game since he made his Test debut in 2010-11 against England," said John Inverarity.
The first Test starts on February 22 in Chennai under the humid conditions and it looks Australia is all set to have a battle with Indian team
Australia squad for India tour, 2013
Michael Clarke (c), Ed Cowan, David Warner, Phil Hughes, Shane Watson, Matthew Wade, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Moises Henriques, James Pattinson, Xavier Doherty, Jackson Bird, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith.