The Australia Cricket Board on Friday had announced a 13-man squad for the first two Tests and dropped Matt Renshaw and replaced him with the new-comer, Cameron Bancroft.
Renshaw got dropped even after some impressive performances in the subcontinent. The 21-year-old was pitted as the favourite to open the innings along with David Warner in the upcoming Ashes, but Bancroft’s recent domestic performances were something that the selectors couldn’t ignore, and he got rewarded for his bulk run scoring.
Bancroft got selected on the back of some excellent form and the piles of runs he had scored in the county as well as the Sheffield Shield. Bancroft scored 206* in his last match for County side Gloucestershire. He then continued his rich vein of form in the Sheffield Shield. In the three games he played for Western Australia, he scored 442 runs at an average of 110.50 which includes the best score of 228* in the last match against South Australia.
Bancroft who plays for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield said that in the recent match against New South Wales he got into a batter with his new opening partner David Warner. He said,
“I played against him in a Shield game. He sledged me for four days; I would expect nothing less. He’s exciting. I’m sure he’s going to bring a lot of energy to the group.”
Bancroft was first picked up for Australia’s tour of Bangladesh in 2015, but the tour got cancelled, and the opener had to wait for his next opportunity. He was then given a pair of pants by Cricket Australia which he was to wear on the flight over. He had packed the pants back in his wardrobe, but he finally got the chance to wear them on his flight to Perth.
“I’ve actually never worn these pants before; I pulled them on not even knowing if they were the right kind of ones that I need to wear for this flight. They’re a bit short.”
Talking about the moment when he got to know that he got selected for the Ashes, he said,
“I was just in the change rooms after the (WA Shield) game, I turned my phone on and had the two voicemails. JL (Justin Langer) said, ‘Have you checked your phone out?’ He said I might want to check my phone. I listened to the voicemails with high hope. I had one missed call from Mosman Park Chiropractic and the second one from Boutique Finance. So it wasn’t exactly good news. But eventually I got the call, and I was very pleased.”
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