Australia Test opener and Queensland captain Usman Khawaja will miss a second straight Sheffield Shield game as Cricket Australia manages his workload in order to keep him mentally and physically fresh for the Test summer, which will feature seven Tests against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand.
Khawaja, who turns 37 in December, played in Queensland's first Sheffield Shield match of the summer against New South Wales in early October and played in two Marsh Cup games against Western Australia and New South Wales either side of that. He was set to play another Marsh Cup game against South Australia in late September but it was washed out without a ball bowled. They are the only matches he has played since the final Ashes Test finished on July 31.
But he has not played since that last Marsh Cup game on October 9 after he was rested from Queensland's Shield and Marsh Cup clashes with Victoria in Mackay. Queensland coach Wade Seccombe stated that Khawaja, CA's high-performance department, including the Australia selectors, and Queensland were all on the same page as far as his workload management for the summer.
That management is ongoing as he will miss another Shield match against Tasmania this week in Hobart in order to continue resting, despite being fully fit, before building up his preparation for the first Test against Pakistan in December.
Jimmy Peirson will once again lead Queensland's side against Tasmania at Bellerive Oval starting on Thursday with the Bulls naming an unchanged 13-man squad in the hope of making it two wins in a row after belting Victoria by an innings.
Meanwhile, Western Australia have rested fast bowler Lance Morris for their upcoming clash with South Australia with CA also managing his workloads ahead of the Test summer. Morris has only played one of the first two Shield games for WA. The two-time defending champions were hoping to bring back Jhye Richardson in his place but Richardson has been sidelined for several weeks after dislocating his shoulder.
Left-arm swing bowler Joel Paris has been named to make his return from a hamstring strain he suffered while playing for Australia A in late August after he got through a WA second XI match unscathed last week. Cameron Gannon has also been recalled for WA after missing the draw with Tasmania due to quad tightness.
Queensland squad vs Tasmania: Jimmy Peirson (c), Joe Burns, Jack Clayton, Liam Guthrie, Matthew Kuhnemann, Ben McDermott, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Gurinder Sandhu, Mark Steketee, Bryce Street, Mitchell Swepson, Jack Wildermuth
Western Australia squad vs South Australia: Sam Whiteman (c), Cameron Bancroft, Hilton Cartwright, Cameron Gannon, Jayden Goodwin, Aaron Hardie, Liam Haskett, Joel Paris, Josh Philippe, Corey Rocchiccioli, Charlie Stobo, Ashton Turner, Teague Wyllie