Embattled Aussies axe five for Adelaide Test

“The more you play, you get more used to it”.

They will enjoy a slender advantage of experience with the pink ball, having beaten New Zealand in the first ever day-night test at the same ground 12 months ago.

Australia was also swept 3-0 in a test series in Sri Lanka in July and August and then beaten 5-0 in a limited-overs global series in South Africa.

Australia has dropped five players ahead of the Test match against South Africa in Adelaide.

“It can’t be an issue, I’ve got to work it out”, Wade, who made 78 and 26 the last time he played a pink ball game, said.

Wade has a Test average of 34.61 from 12 matches, with two centuries, and while his ability as a batsman is unquestioned his wicketkeeping has attracted scrutiny and contributed to an extended stint on the outer from the Test side.

Queensland’s Renshaw, Victorian Handscomb, New South Welshman Maddinson and Sayers of South Australia are all uncapped, meaning at least three players will make their Test debuts.

There is huge pressure on captain Steve Smith to turn things around and avoid a Test series whitewash at home, something that has never happened in the history of Australian cricket previously.

While a couple meters away Matt Renshaw and Peter Handscomb gathered their packs for the first run through as Australian Test cricketers, Callum Ferguson thought about how he had been picked and disposed of in the space of a solitary week.

In one of the seismic selection purges in the last 30 years, opener Renshaw, 20, will be the youngest test batsman to debut for Australia since the late Phillip Hughes in 2009. “We’ve got to pick them up, get them positive”, he said.

Bird responded by posting his highest first-class score – 39 – in Tasmania’s next Sheffield Shield match against South Australia.

“Nic is an exciting and talented young player and we feel now is the ideal time for him to be involved with the Australian team”, Australian interim chief selector Trevor Hohns told AFP. He has a good all-round game and we think he is the type of player who could succeed at the next level.

Despite this, the South Africans, with their pace trio Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Kyle Abbott dominating the Australian batting, will fancy their chances bowling with the pink ball in swinging conditions under lights at Adelaide Oval. “We need to start from a point moving forward and hopefully this group gets an opportunity to do that, not only in one game but over a period of time”.

“I think I just bring what I bring for Victoria week in, week out”, he said. You’ve just got to get used to it.

“We don’t expect an immediate turnaround, but we’ve got a bit of faith in these guys now”.

David Warner, Matt Renshaw, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Peter Handscomb, Nic Maddinson, Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Jackson Bird, Chadd Sayers.