Australia have confirmed three debutants for the opening T20I against South Africa in Durban with Spencer Johnson, Aaron Hardie and Matt Short all set to play their first international match under new captain Mitchell Marsh.
Australia named their XI for the first of three T20Is on Wednesday with Johnson, Hardie and Short headlining a completely new-look side to the last T20I side that played for Australia in the home T20 World Cup in October last year.
David Warner, Cameron Green and Josh Hazlewood, who all played in Australia's last T20I, are being rested ahead of the ODI series while Steven Smith, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell are all injured although Starc was dropped for the final match of last year's World Cup.
Long-time T20 captain Aaron Finch has retired meaning Short will open the batting with Travis Head, having done so together briefly at Adelaide Strikers in the BBL last season where Short was named player of the tournament. Smith was set to open in the series before he was ruled out with a wrist injury that he suffered during the Ashes.
Johnson is likely to take the new ball as he was named among a four-man attack featuring long-term Australia understudies Sean Abbott and Nathan Ellis with Adam Zampa playing as the lone spinner. Marsh said he had been "blown away" by Johnson's ability in the brief times he had seen him bowl.
"We are excited to see a young man make his debut for Australia," Marsh added when speaking on Tuesday. "He is a super talent. He bowls mid to high 140s and swings the ball. My only message for him is to make sure he enjoys it."
Hardie is slated to bat at No. 7 although most of his recent success for Perth Scorchers has come at No. 3. He may get an opportunity at No.3 later in the series as Australia look to use the games to experiment with just under 12 months to go before next year's T20 World Cup. He is one of four all-round options Marsh has to make up the overs of the fifth bowler alongside himself, Marcus Stoinis and Short who can bowl handy offspin and has experience bowling in the powerplay.
Josh Inglis will bat at No. 4 and be the wicketkeeper after Matthew Wade was initially not selected for the tour although he has flown in as cover for Maxwell. Wade remains in the selection frame for next year's World Cup given his outstanding body of work in T20 cricket over the last two years but the selectors saw this tour as an opportunity for Inglis to take the gloves and bat in the middle order given his prowess against spin ahead of a T20 World Cup in the Caribbean.
The debuts of Johnson and Hardie in particular are a precursor to Australia's planning ahead of the ODI series and the 50-over World Cup starting in October. While the formats are different, Johnson and Hardie are also in Australia's squad for the ODIs in South Africa ahead of the World Cup, with Short heading home after the T20Is.
Australia have a long injury list at the moment with Cummins (wrist), Smith (wrist), Starc (groin) and Maxwell (ankle) all unavailable for the South Africa ODI series. All four are expected to be fit for the India series that starts on September 22 but coach Andrew McDonald told SEN radio on Tuesday that Johnson and Hardie had an opportunity to stake a claim for a berth in Australia's final ODI World Cup 15 should any of those players fail to recover.
"I think we're far from settled just with the injury room at the moment," McDonald said. "The information on all of them is they will be right for the World Cup which is positive but you never know obviously when you're coming off injury. If there was a reoccurrence then that could shift our thinking a little bit.
"Is this an audition potentially for spaces that may open up, in South Africa? There's no doubt about that. We feel as though we've got some exciting talent coming through. You look at Aaron Hardie in that allrounder space, getting his opportunity. Spencer Johnson as well, a left-arm fast bowler. We've got some new players coming through and we feel as though it's the right time for that as well to blend that youth with experience.
"If anything were to move or shift on us, we've got that information from South Africa. It's remiss of me not to mention Tanveer Sangha in that spinning department. He's a young exciting legspinner. If something were to happen to Adam Zampa we're hoping to get some game time into him in South Africa."
McDonald added Maxwell's latest setback with his leg was slightly worrying given he has experienced similar soreness with his previously broken leg on his international return in the ODI series in India back in March.
"It's concerning," McDonald said. "And the reason why it's concerning is it's happened a couple of times. If you remember back to the three-match series against India he played in the first one and pulled up a bit lame from that and then coming into camp for this one has had another small setback. There's no doubt on the back of what was a horrendous injury that he suffered there's always going to be a balance between the load that he can take on and unfortunately, he's had a small setback here but we're confident that he'll be right for the World Cup."
McDonald is not leaving for South Africa until Wednesday having taken some extra time at home with Assistant coach Michael Di Venuto taking charge of Australia's side for the T20 series.
Australia's XI: Matt Short, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Josh Inglis (wk), Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Aaron Hardie, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson