Meredith earns Australia debut in must-win T20 clash

Riley Meredith has become the second player to make his international debut on Australia’s tour of New Zealand, with the Tasmanian speedster brought in for their must-win third T20 in Wellington. 

The 24-year-old has been included in the Australian XI at the expense of Daniel Sams, as NZ skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and elected to bowl first with the visitors 0-2 down in the five-game campaign and needing a win to stop a Black Caps’ sweep.

Meredith was fittingly handed his cap by his former state captain, George Bailey, now a national selector, in front of empty stands at Wellington’s Sky Stadium, which will host the remaining three games of the series due to Auckland’s recent COVID-19 outbreak.

New Zealand have also made a change with batsman Mark Chapman coming into the XI for Mitchell Santner, who took four wickets in the second T20I but now has symptoms of a head cold and is self-isolating as a precaution as he awaits results of a COVID-19 test.

The omission of the allrounder Sams comes as somewhat of a surprise given his star turn in the second T20 with the bat, smashing 41 off 15 balls in a record seventh-wicket partnership with Marcus Stoinis. 

His expensive returns of 2-40 and 1-46 with the ball may have cost him.

The match marks leg-spinner Adam Zampa’s 100th for Australia across both white-ball formats.

"When you reflect on five years ago, you're a kid who is literally just hoping to get on the next tour and give yourself a two-year career," Zampa told The Unplayable Podcast this week.

"I don't know if that's how everyone else starts off in their own mind but it's pretty tough being a leg-spinner. Not many people have been able to sustain it for a long period of time so it's something that I'm a little bit proud of."

Meredith, who was bought by Punjab Kings for a whopping A$1.42 million in last month’s IPL auction, is Australia’s 97th international T20 player after fellow KFC BBL star Josh Philippe earnt his maiden T20I cap last week in the series opener.

The right-armer’s extreme pace – he has exceeded the 150kph barrier on numerous occasions – has put on him on the radar in the BBL, with Shane Warne in particular singing his praises in recent seasons.

"I've probably got to buy Warney a beer at some stage, once corona(virus) is over,” he joked last year.

Meredith took 16 wickets at 24.62 for the Hobart Hurricanes during BBL10, while he also impressed with an economy rate of 7.82.

Spinner Ashton Agar said last week he was looking forward to playing in Wellington, with the venue affectionately known as the ‘Cake Tin’ providing a slightly bigger playing area compared to Dunedin's tiny University of Otago Oval.

"This ground isn't as short and straight so that's always nice ... to have a longer boundary straight down the wicket is beautiful,” said Agar.

Qantas T20I tour of New Zealand 2021

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Hamish Bennett, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, *Martin Guptill (pending fitness test), Kyle Jamieson, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee. *Finn Allen (on stand-by for Guptill)

1st T20: New Zealand won by 53 runs

2nd T20: New Zealand won by four runs

3rd T20: March 3, Sky Stadium, Wellington, 5pm AEDT

4th T20: March 5, Sky Stadium, Wellington, 5pm AEDT

5th T20: March 7, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 12noon AEDT

All matches will be shown live in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo