Josh Inglis was one of 20 players awarded Cricket Australia central contracts on Friday, less than two months after his international debut, but his Western Australia team mate Jhye Richardson missed out.
Former Test captain Tim Paine, who has taken an indefinite leave of absence from cricket, James Pattinson, who has retired, and quick Kane Richard-son were the other players on last year’s 17-strong list not included.
Mitch Marsh, Scott Boland, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Swepson all retained the contract upgrades they earned through a points system over the last year.
“It has been a terrific 12 months highlighted by the successes of the T20 World Cup, the Ashes and the Pakistan Test series,” head selector George Bailey said in a statement.
“The performances by Mitch Marsh, Usman, Travis, Scott, Marcus and Mitch Swepson were pivotal in helping secure those successes and we are pleased they have retained their contracts for the upcoming year.
“We believe this group provide us great coverage and versatility across all formats while others, as we saw in the past year, will continue to get opportuni-ties to play a big part.—APP