Australia’s tour of Bangladesh: Fekete, Bancroft make the cut

Usman Khawaja, Andrew Fekete and Cameron Bancroft are a few in the new look Australian side picked to tour Bangladesh, later this year.

While Khawaja has played Test cricket for the senior side. Bancroft and Fekete make the squad on the back of some impressive performances in Shield cricket and the Team A’s tour to India. The most important criteria for their selection was the ability to adapt to the sub continental conditions.

Fekete consistently picked wickets on the dry Chepauk wicket, whereas Bancroft scored a 50 and a phenomenal 150 in the test match and set the course for Australia A’s impressive 10 wickets victory over India A.

The squad overall is well balanced, led by Steven Smith on his first full time Test series as a captain.

“I haven’t seen a great deal of him to be quite honest,” The skipper said on the selection of Andrew Fekete, speaking to cricket.com.au.

“I heard he bowled extremely well in India for the ‘A’ stuff there and there’s no doubt that the conditions are likely to be quite similar.” he acknowledged.

“I think he reverses the ball quite well and hopefully that will be one of our strengths that we’ll be able to do well in Bangladesh and he certainly provides that option.” he added

Meanwhile the national side selector Rod Marsh justified the selection of Cameroon Bancroft saying that his ability to field superbly and play spin decently makes him an important asset for the tour.

“Cameron is a player who impressed everyone on the recent A tour of India,” Marsh was quoted saying.

“On that tour he played spin well, fielded brilliantly at bat-pad and his whole demeanor was that of a player who is determined to play Test cricket.” he added

“He scored almost 900 first-class runs last season, he’s young, hungry and he could become a very good player for us over a long period of time.” he concluded.

Other new names in the squad are Glenn Maxwell, as he makes a comeback, and also the off spinner Stephen O’Keefe.