Australia rookies assured of their debuts in SA

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Australia will definitely hand debuts to three new fast bowlers in the ODI series against the Proteas in South Africa, with coach Darren Lehmann saying he’d be giving everyone a run.

None of Joe Mennie, Daniel Worrall and Chris Tremain have worn the national colours at this level before, and are assured of their caps in this series, given the long list of absent senior bowlers.

Mitchell Starc is injured but was being rested for this series anyway, while Josh Hazlewood is also being sat out. James Faulkner is injured, leaving Mitchell Marsh as the most experienced paceman on the trip.

Lehmann said of the three newbies: “We do turnover a bit in our one-day set-up because you’ve got to give the Test players a break somewhere.

“So we get our one-day players to chop and change a little bit, and they handle it very well.

“The great thing is it gives them (new players) a chance at this next level, so we’ve had someone like Travis Head come in and do really well for us, and the bowlers chop and change a bit.

“We’ve done that since the World Cup final and making sure we’re giving everyone enough game time looking ahead to major tournaments – we’ve got the Champions Trophy next year and then looking ahead to 2019 (World Cup).

“And the players adapt really well when we do that.”

Lehmann defended the decision to rest Starc and Hazlewood, saying that with the Tests against the Proteas coming up in November, and the busy time the pacemen have had this year, an ODI series was the perfect time to rest them.

The coach added in Johannesburg: “There’s obviously good reasons why we don’t bring Starc and Hazlewood here. We’re playing you in a Test series and we want to give them a break.

“But we’ve got some good young fast bowlers. It’s a great challenge for our young guys, they’re good young players and they’ll go well.

“We’ve also got some good quality there with Hastings who has played really well for us, Boland did well last series (in Sri Lanka) and then you’ve got the three debutants who will play at some stage during the tournament.

“We’re hoping they step up and I’m sure they will. They’ve got some pace, they swing the ball and we’ve got some variations.

“We’re going to see some young guys go at it, and someone gets to make a name for themselves in a high-quality series.

“Obviously you’ve got your superstars like, for us, Steven (Smith) and David (Warner) performing like they normally do, but it gives a chance for the young guys to show how they go about it.

“And I’m sure it’s the same for South Africa.”

The first ODI is on 30 September at Centurion, though they do play a one-off ODI against Ireland first, in which those debuts could be made.

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