Uncapped all-rounder Hilton Cartwright has been named as a surprise inclusion in the 13-man Australian squad for the second Test of the three-match series against Pakistan beginning at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on December 26.
The 24-year-old, who was called to Australia's ODI squad for Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series against New Zealand but wasn't selected for his international debut, seems to have brought in the Test side on the back of his decent domestic performances. He smashed 330 runs at 36.66 and took four wickets 74.75 in five Sheffield Shield games he played for the Warriors this summer.
Cartwright is now in line to make his Test debut as Australia selectors are monitoring the fitness of their bowling attack following their nail-biting 39-run win over the Misbah-ul-Haq-led side in the opening Test at the Gabba.
Reflecting on Cartwright's inclusion, Australia's interim Chairman of Selectors Trevor Hohns said the all-rounder had been brought into the squad to give them the option of including an all-rounder and to ease the bowling burden on the four frontline bowlers.
"The bowlers got through a high workload in Brisbane and although everyone has pulled up okay, on reflection we wanted to give ourselves the option of including an all-rounder in Melbourne to ease that workload somewhat," cricket.com.au quoted Hohns as saying.
Mitchell Starc bagged four wickets while Jackson Bird and Nathan Lyon clinched three and two wickets respectively as Australia bundled out Pakistan for 450 runs in their chase of a world-record target of 490 runs.
The revised Australian squad is as follows:
David Warner, Matthew Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (captain), Peter Handscomb, Nic Maddinson, Hilton Cartwright, Matthew Wade, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird, Chadd Sayers, Nathan Lyon.