Sydney, Oct 13 (IANS) Australia coach Darren Lehmann expects a seamless transition period for their new-look Test team ahead of a busy cricket schedule.
The team will enter the season under new full time leaders in captain Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner, and without recent retirees Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Chris Rogers and Shane Watson.
Despite the wealth of experience that has left the side, Lehmann is confident the young players coming through will be ready for the challenge in the forthcoming series’ against New Zealand and the West Indies.
“It will be pretty easy, I think they’re all good kids,” Lehmann was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au on Tuesday.
“We don’t have too many bad blokes in our group. They know how we want to play and how we want to behave and act. We want to make sure we’re entertaining people the whole time and we’ve been very good at that over the past 12 months.”
The start of Australia’s training camp in Sydney was ruined by rain on Tuesday morning, Lehmann welcomed the opportunity to spend more time with squad newcomers such as Cameron Bancroft and Andrew Fekete.
“I don’t know him well enough yet to be perfectly honest,” Lehmann said of Bancroft, the player many see as the likely candidate to open the batting with Warner in Test cricket.
“I’m looking forward to spending some time with him if he gets selected. They reckon he’s a ripper kid and Justin Langer speaks highly of him. His thirst for the game is second to none and he trains the house down, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes about it.”
“That’s the exciting thing for the selection panel. They get to see these guys more than we do when we’re playing or touring. It’s good to see the young guys come in and see what we’re about. This is chance to see how they play and how they face Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc,” he added.
