Veteran opener David Warner has been retained in Australia's squad for the start of the Ashes series in England and is still in the mix for the World Test Championship final against India. (More Cricket News)
Speculation over the 36-year-old left-hander's future in cricket's longest format mounted when he was injured on Australia's recent tour to India and missed the bulk of the test series before returning for the limited-overs matches.
Warner and two other candidates to open the batting — Marcus Harris and Matt Renshaw — were included along with incumbent opener Usman Khawaja in the 17-man squad announced Wednesday for the start of the five-test Ashes series.
Cricket Australia said it would narrow a squad down to 15 on May 28 for the World Test Championship final, which begins June 7 at the Oval in London.
Warner scored 26 runs in three innings in India, with a top score of 15, before being ruled out of the series with a concussion and an injured elbow.
He has 25 career centuries and accumulated 8,158 runs at an average of almost 46 in 103 test matches, although only five of those hundreds have been in away tests and he's never reached triple figures in an Ashes match played in England.
Mitch Marsh was recalled to the test squad for the first time since 2019 as backup to all-rounder Cameron Green, and Todd Murphy was retained as the backup spin option to Nathan Lyon after making his test debut in India.
Pat Cummins will return as captain and feature in a bowling group containing just three other specialist pacemen: Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland.
Cricket Australia selector George Bailey said touring Britain “is a very different assignment from our most recent tour of India and some of the changes are based upon the conditions we are anticipating.”
Batter Peter Handscomb and spinners Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson and Matt Kuhnemann were not retained from the squad which toured India. Pace bowler Lance Morris was ruled out of the squad because of an injury.
The Ashes starts June 16 at Birmingham, with selectors indicating there could be changes in the squad, depending on performances in the opening two matches of the series.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (captain), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner.
