Overview
- Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Tim David were named despite current injuries, with chair of selectors George Bailey saying they are tracking well for February.
- Left-arm spinners Cooper Connolly and Matt Kuhnemann earned surprise call-ups to support Adam Zampa, with Glenn Maxwell and Matthew Short offering additional spin options.
- Mitchell Marsh will captain a 15 featuring no left-arm pacer after Mitchell Starc’s T20I retirement, and Xavier Bartlett was preferred over Ben Dwarshuis.
- Australia will play group matches in Sri Lanka, opening against Ireland on February 11 before facing Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Oman, with a warm-up T20 series against Pakistan scheduled beforehand.
- Separately, Australia kept an unchanged 15 for the SCG Ashes Test with Steve Smith to lead and Usman Khawaja retained, as reports indicate Khawaja plans to address retirement speculation and Travis Head signals he will likely skip the BBL to stay fresh for the World Cup.