Australia have placed Mahli Beardman, a 19-year-old paceman with just six overs in senior professional cricket behind him, on standby for this month’s one-day international series away to England, team management announced on Monday.
Beardman was named player of the match after taking 3-15 in just seven overs as Australia thrashed India by 79 runs in February’s Under-19 World Cup final in South Africa.
But he has played just one List A (limited-overs) game for Western Australia, finishing with figures of 1-42 against New South Wales in the Marsh Cup last November.
Beardman will now join the Australia squad in Nottingham as the 50-over world champions prepare for the first of a five-game ODI series against England at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
“Pretty surreal, so unexpected”“It’s pretty surreal, just so unexpected,” Beardman said from Perth Airport before departing for the UK.
“I started the morning off with a little message from Tony (Dodemaide); I didn’t think it was real to be honest, I thought it might have been one of the boys pranking me.
“But I gave him a call back and got talking and he said come over to England to train and be around the squad,” he added.
Australia have already seen injuries blight their pace attack during the T20 leg of their tour, with Nathan Ellis, Riley Meredith and Xavier Bartlett all affected, and they are also wary of adding too much to the workload of senior fast bowlers Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Left-armer Ben Dwarshuis, who has already played for Durham and Northern Superchargers in English domestic cricket this season, and Cooper Connolly, who had been due to leave after the drawn T20 series with England, have also been added to Australia’s ODI squad.
“There will be opportunities for guys throughout the series, no doubt,” captain Mitch Marsh told cricket.com.au following the drawn T20 series.
“Five games in 11 days, we’ll have to juggle a bit, but guys will get opportunities and a lot like the T20 series, we’re really excited by that.”
Australia ODI squad v England: Mitch Marsh (captain), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa. Reserve: Mahli Beardman
Mahli Beardman
