Bailey bailey

The South Australia: Australian chief selector George Bailey has fired back at the criticism levelled by former Test opener Ed Cowan, who called the selection of Nathan McSweeney for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener "a guess".

Cricket Australia, while revealing the 13-man squad last week, confirmed that McSweeney would open the batting alongside Usman Khawaja in the series opener on November 22 in Perth.

McSweeney had never opened the batting at first-class level before this week’s Australia A match against India A at the MCG. The South Australia captain has impressed at No.4 and, more recently, No.3, for his statewith scores of 39 off 131 and 88 not out off 178. The 25-year-old. however, failed to fire in his new position as opener, registering scores of 14 and 25.