Big guns to take new ball for Australia A

After it had been teased in the one-day series, the pace pair of Josh Hazlewood and James Pattinson will finally reunite in Australia A's opening four-day match against Sussex in Arundel starting today.

While Hazlewood has been firing on all cylinders this tour, Pattinson had to overcome an injury scare to join him in the starting side.

The Victorian tearaway was struck on his left thumb by a young net bowler in the Sussex County Ground nets on Thursday.

He bowled with great pace and accuracy the following day, but the damaged digit continued to cause discomfort while he was batting, so he was sent for an x-ray that afternoon.

The scans revealed no fracture and after a lengthy net session with the bat on Saturday, Pattinson gave the medical team and national selector Trevor Hohns the thumbs up that he was right to play.

Australia A and Test captain Tim Paine said he can see the upside in Pattinson's scare and is looking forward to fielding a powerful new-ball attack.

"It's going to be exciting. To have bowlers of their quality in the Australia A setup is fantastic," Paine told cricket.com.au on match eve in Brighton.

"It's a more experienced Australia A side than we've put on the park for a number of years and I think it's a really good thing.

"If anything, (Pattinson's blow) is a good thing, it's made him rest up (yesterday) and he'll be fresh for (today).

"And it's awesome for Australian cricket to see him back in Aussie colours."

Pattinson and Hazlewood will be joined by Tasmania paceman Jackson Bird and Victoria left-arm spinner Jon Holland as the specialist bowlers in the XI.

Following on from scores of 51 and 137 – his maiden List A hundred – against Gloucestershire earlier this week, youngster Will Pucovski will open the batting alongside Test opener Marcus Harris.

"Will has been outstanding," Paine said. "We know what a good player he is. It was fantastic when he got the opportunity in the one-day games to open the batting and score some runs, which was awesome to see.

"He bats in a style I think can be really successful in England; he plays the ball really late and he's really still and balanced.

"They're a pretty good place to start for a young batsman and as we've seen in Australia, when he gets in he likes to bat big.

"We're expecting big things from 'Puc' in the future but we're just excited to have him here on the park."

With Pucovski opening, Test incumbents Kurtis Patterson and Travis Head will bat at No.3 and No.4 respectively, ahead of Matt Wade playing as a specialist batsman, allrounder Mitch Marsh and skipper Paine, who will take the gloves.

While each performance will be vital for those players pushing for Ashes selection, the mindset from the Australia A group has not changed since transferring from white ball to red ball cricket.

"We want to win," Paine said. "We've spoken about it already today (Saturday), we want to be playing our best cricket.

"We've been here now a few weeks. Granted there's a few guys that will be playing their first game tomorrow (Sunday) but we've had some time to adjust and find our feet here in England.

"We're ready to go, we want to hit the ground running and playing our best cricket as quick as we possibly can and build some momentum by winning as many games of cricket as we can."

Australia A XI: Marcus Harris, Will Pucovski, Kurtis Patterson, Travis Head, Matt Wade, Mitch Marsh, Tim Paine (c, wk), James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland

Australia A tour of the UK

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Australia A one-day squad: Travis Head (c), Matthew Wade, Will Pucovski, Peter Handscomb, Mitch Marsh (vc), D'Arcy Short, Kurtis Patterson, Ashton Agar, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood (vc), Sean Abbott, Andrew Tye

Australia A four-day squad: Tim Paine (c), Marcus Harris, Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Travis Head (vc), Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade, Mitch Marsh, Michael Neser, Jon Holland, James Pattinson, Jackson Bird, Josh Hazlewood (vc), Chris Tremain

One-day fixtures:

June 20: Australia A beat Northamptonshire by six wickets

June 23: Australia A beat Derbyshire by seven wickets

June 25: Australia A v Worcestershire, match abandoned

June 30: Australia A beat Gloucestershire by five wickets

July 2: Australia A beat Gloucestershire by nine runs

Four-day fixtures:

July 7-10: Australia A v Sussex, Arundel

July 13-16: Australia A v England Lions, Canterbury

July 23-26: Australia v Australia A, Hampshire