Nathan McSweeney and Cooper Connolly pick indication Australia is looking to the future – Blogging Sole

“It was obviously good news after a bit of a chaotic few months,” McSweeney told reporters at Brisbane Airport. “It was a little nicer call than the last one. I will learn a lot from my experiences in my first three Tests and I hope to learn from them if I get the opportunity to play there, I am playing very well.

It would take a reshuffle of the batting order for McSweeney to return to the Sri Lanka side, which is not out of the question with Travis Head an option to open although there is also a desire to introduce cricket from the subcontinent to Konstas, but even though he is not playing, it is notable that he was recalled quickly.

“I think it shows the character that we saw and the kind of person he is, the way he responded and spoke about it so publicly shortly after it happened and immediately resumed his performance for the Heat,” Bailey said.

McSweeney has already traveled to the MRF Academy in India to continue his studies against manipulation and expects to have to use a different set of skills than those that come in handy in Australia if he gets the chance.

“It is undoubtedly a big challenge, but I have anticipated it and I will be ready to take it on without a doubt,” he said. “Playing spin in Australia must be very different from playing spin over in Sri Lanka. I developed a method in Australia that worked for me during my Shield career, but I will definitely need to develop a new one to be a good player there.

In the official statement, Bailey had spoken of the tour as an opportunity for players to “develop their games in the subcontinent” with an eye towards years to come, although he later insisted on qualification for the final of the World Test Championship, with the 3-1. margin of the series on India, had not changed the thinking of the selectors on the participants in this trip.

“I know there has been a lot of speculation about it (WTC qualification), but we view every Test tour and every Test match as being really important,” Bailey said. “So for us it was more about structuring two or three different ways of what we thought the first XI could look like.”

While it is not confirmed whether Konstas will retain his place as an opener, it would be a way to help accelerate his education at Test level in what will likely be spin-friendly conditions ahead of the 2027 Test tour of India .

“What we’ve seen is he’s a quick learner and he’s absorbing a lot of information,” Bailey said. “So (we expect) him to get a lot out of it. Based on his spin game in Australia and the opportunities he has played in different parts of the world, we believe he has a well-suited game and technique that can hold up. That’s one of the exciting things about this tour. We will learn a little more about his game in conditions different from those he just faced in Australia.

Connolly, meanwhile, was selected after just four first-class matches spanning three half-centuries, including 90 on debut in last year’s Sheffield Shield final, and he is yet to take wicketkeeper in the format with his left-arm spin. . However, the selectors have been encouraged by his great temperament which has already earned him four appearances on the white ball.

“Technically, we like it. We like the temperament. Character, we like. Obviously there’s a lot of skill to appreciate here as well,” Bailey said. “On the first-class front, there aren’t a lot of games behind him, but he’s one of those who has been in that one-day squad. In the past, we’ve used this as a springboard at different times to see a little more of a player, learn a little more about the way they play. He was obviously the beneficiary. He’s someone we’ve been watching for a while.