Australia A 195 and 139 for 3 (McSweeney 47*, Harris 36, Prasidh 1-17) need 86 more runs to beat India A 107 and 312 (Sudharsan 103, Padikkal 88, O’Neill 4-55)
“I thought a bit more about it, and he is so young and he has probably not even played on grounds like Optus Stadium or at the Gabba,” Ponting told the ICC Review show. “He wouldn’t have played a pink-ball [match] at Adelaide Oval either. So there’s a lot of things that stack up against the young guy, although there’s no doubt that he’s got talent.
“Another thing that I’d said then was that I don’t think they’d go back to a [Cameron] Bancroft or [Marcus] Harris – because if they’re willing to do that, they would’ve done it the last year.
“So the only name left for me more or less is Nathan McSweeney… he got the most out of any of those guys from the A game in Australia at the moment. And he’s more experienced. He has captained Australia A in the past, and he’s captaining them now. So I’m leaning towards McSweeney now for that opening role at the start of the Australian summer.”
Ahead of the ongoing game against India A, McSweeney had said he felt his game could adapt to opening, and heading into the fourth day, he has now faced over 200 deliveries in a contest where the ball has held sway for long periods.
The new ball was a threat when Australia A set out on their chase. Bancroft, who had received a rough decision in the first innings when he was given caught off the thigh pad, had a huge stroke of fortune when he was taken at slip on 4 off Navdeep Saini, but it turned out to be a no-ball. Bancroft, though, couldn’t make the most of it even as he reached double figures for the first time in six innings in first-class cricket this season.
Harris, meanwhile, had shaped up promisingly in testing conditions with a brace of drives off Saini suggesting he was gaining in confidence. But playing forward to left-arm spinner Manav Suthar, who was finding some turn, he got a thin outside edge to one which went straight on.
Beau Webster took a sharp return catch to remove Nitish Kumar Reddy from a full toss, and Murphy closed out the innings with a deserving third wicket.
