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Hohns explains India Test squad decisions

Australia's interim Chairman of Selectors gives the panel's reasoning for some of their picks for the India series

National selection panel chairman Trevor Hohns today announced Australia’s 16-man squad that will head to the subcontinent to take on India next month.

Quick Single: Australia name Test squad for India tour

The make-up of the playing group has been debated ever since Australia were whitewashed 3-0 in Sri Lanka last winter.

Squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Who will be the spinners? Will the selectors pick a leggie? Which allrounders will they take? Will Matthew Wade retain the wicketkeeping duties? Is Glenn Maxwell a chance?

Those questions were answered on Sunday morning and below are Hohns’ explanations behind each one of them.

Why Mitchell Swepson?

Mitchell Swepson has come through the pathway system. He is an exciting young leg-spinner, gives the ball a very good rip; he’s a wicket-taking leg-spinner. At the end of the day you’ve got to take wickets to win Test matches. Given the opportunity we feel he could play a part over there and if he doesn’t he’ll gain a lot from the experience from being there.

Swepson scuttles India with four

Why Swepson over Adam Zampa?

It was reasonably close. When we decided to take four spinners we thought a leg-spinner would be handy to have over there, whether they play or not is in the lap of the gods at the moment. We thought we would go for a more attacking leg-spinner more so than a defensive spinner. That’s no disrespect to Adam. Adam is going well as well. 

Zampa puts the Renegades in a spin

Why did Wade keep the gloves?

It was nice to see Matthew score some runs (referrring to his maiden ODI century on Friday night). We know he can bat as stated previously. The thing with Matthew is since his inclusion in the Test side we feel his wicketkeeping has improved immensely. Plus, we don’t’ necessarily see it but what he adds to the team environment and what he does behind the scenes is immeasurable and he’s going pretty well for us.

Stumps at the MCG: Pakistan back in business

Why Mitchell Marsh over incumbent allrounder Hilton Cartwright?

Thinking forward to the likely make-up of our side over there, and we don’t know what conditions will prevail, we thought we wanted the better bowling-type allrounder to better complement the rest of the side. This is a selection where we thought we would like a bowling allrounder and we know consider Mitch in that category. His bowling is probably better than most of the other allrounders in that category at the moment. 

Cartwright's maiden innings one to remember

Why recall Glenn Maxwell?

What we do know is Glenn is very experienced in Indian conditions. He’s generally regarded as a good player of spin bowling, he’s a good fielder and his off-spin could be handy. Once again, if conditions prevail we have the option of playing him as the allrounder and having the extra spinning option available to us. 

Will Swepson and Ashton Agar play?

It’s good experience for them. We consider them good enough if required. Nathan Lyon and Stephen O’Keefe - one would expect them to be our two frontline spinners. The other two are there for back-up or if we need a third spinner if the conditions suit that type of bowling. We also do consider those two will step up to the plate if required. Yes, there are two left-arm spinners there but they’re different types; O’Keefe is much shorter and we’ve got a tall left-arm spinner (Agar) who gets good bounce. I think they should complement each other very nicely and work well together over there.  

The two sides will play four Tests, with the first to kick off in Pune on February 23.