Brisbane (Australia): Xavier Bartlett is excited to see his teammate Nathan McSweeney make his debut for Australia in the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy against India.

Australia solved their initial conundrum, at least for the series opener in Perth, by naming McSweeney in the 13-man squad.

Even with the option of including the experienced Marcus Harris or the young Sam Konastas, the selectors decided to include McSweeney in the mix after his performances for Australia A against India A.

With McSweeney almost set to open alongside Usman Khawaja, Bartlett is hopeful that McSweeney’s first outing goes well in Test colors for Australia.

“Seeing his journey from when we were 11 or 12 (years old) to where he is now, making his Test debut, is incredible; I’m absolutely thrilled for him,” Bartlett said of McSweeney as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

“He’s worked really hard. I can’t wait to see him come out and I hope he does well for Australia,” he added.

In the first unofficial Test against India A, the Australia A captain came to bat at number four and thrived against top-class pacers.

He looked promising in the first innings with his consistent 39 and followed it up brilliantly in the second innings by scoring an unbeaten 88 off 178 deliveries.

In the second unofficial test, McSweeney rose to the top of the order, but was unable to replicate the success he had during the first outing. He could only score 14 and 25 in both innings to finish the two unofficial Tests, which turned out to be enough to justify his selection.

The opening match of the blockbuster series between two Test giants, India and Australia, will be played in Perth from November 22.

India Team for Border-Gavaskar Series: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Dhruv Jurel, Sarfaraz Khan, Virat Kohli, Prasidh Krishna, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Mohammed Siraj, Washington Sundar.

Australia team for the first Test: Pat Cummins, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to the text.