Pair of spectacles for Handscomb in India.
Not sure why he’s getting gigs for Australia A still.
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Bright young thing of only 35. Planning for the future.
Handscomb was picked for the A team on the basis they expected him to come into contention for the test tour in January. Absolutely no way he could be considered now.
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Nic Maddinson… really?? 
Wow Maddinson is a massive massive surprise. He didn’t play a first class game last season as he dealt with cancer and the previous shield season averaged 17.8 with 267 runs in 8 games with a highest score of 69 - his only 50 for the season. The hundred he got in the 50 over game vs Victoria last week must have been very good! Boland got him out in the end.
Surely Patterson was the one to pick from NSW.
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He’s back in NSW colours, so makes sense
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Pattinson is also injured
Madison from the clouds though is really bizarre, are they punishing the A team players for not making tons in India? Surely they are next in line
Well Harper did make a ton, so that’s at least something.
Spare opener in case they drop Trav back down
What a disgrace 
Whitewash on the cards. Players out of form, poor selections, hostile crowds after ‘Sandpapergate’… won’t cope.
This is a team that couldn’t even win a home series against Bangladesh last month. Disastrous.
I get Harper. We do need someone who can keep. He isn’t a test level bat I wouldn’t have thought but he is pretty good with the gloves.
But Maddinson? I’d have gone for Peake or Kellaway if recent first-class runs weren’t a key factor. At least give the next gen a chance.
How is Henry Hunt going?
The funny thing with Maddinson is this.
He was given a baggy green all those years ago waaayy before he was ready. He didn’t know his game nor himself (mental & emotional maturity).
Now he could be returning when he is probably past it lol.
The time he actually was in form and you could make a strong case for him was like 3-4 years back when he was piling on Shield runs for Victoria.
Look - having said all that, the chances are he is probably just going to be part of the tour party and not actually play.
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Based on his last 12 months he’s batting as well as anyone in Australia and is deserving of a call up. Don’t think his batting would struggle at test level.
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Why wouldn’t they just send Weatherald?
Because he would be an absolute walking wicket over there
like Maddinson?
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Robert Craddock and Daniel Cherny on Nic Maddinson’s shock return to Australia’s Test squad
Nic Maddinson fought for his cricket career — and his life. It’s why his stunning return to the Test squad has been largely met with applause despite highlighting the depths of Australia’s batting crisis.
Robert Craddock and Daniel Cherny
3 min read
October 2, 2026 - 3:20PM
Australia’s cricket selectors have blown up the building.
The shock selection of 34-year-old cancer survivor Nic Maddinson and, to a lesser extent, Sam Harper for the South African Test series is a vivid sign that pecking orders don’t matter any more.
Instead Australia, troubled by its lack of batting depth, will go with a gut feeling (Maddinson) or the hot hand (Harper).
If you are a cricket fan and you feel you don’t really know who should be the next batsman into the Test side don’t feel bad — neither do the selectors.
They are throwing darts at boards but to be fair to them the emerging batsmen in the country are not helping. No-one is standing out.
Nic Maddinson is back in the Test side 10 years after his debut.
There was an avalanche of bewildered text messages from players, managers and officials cascading around Australia on Friday in the wake of Maddinson’s shock call-up and only the fact that he is such an inspiring story muzzled the strength of public comment.
And what a story he is.
After losing his hair following a gruelling nine-week chemotherapy course in May last year Maddison has returned to the fold and struck immediate form with a 126 for NSW against Victoria in the 50-over Cup which got him in the Test squad where his versatility can cover the entire top order.
Remarkably, his last Sheffield Shield match was way back in March last year when he made 4 and 0 for NSW.
NIC MADDINSON’S CAREER
| Tests | 3 | 4 | 0 | 27 | 22 | 6.75 | 34.61 | 0 | 0 |
| T20Is | 6 | 4 | 0 | 45 | 34 | 11.25 | 128.57 | 0 | 0 |
| FC | 129 | 225 | 14 | 7,832 | 224 | 37.11 | 61.91 | 18 | 36 |
| List A | 107 | 102 | 3 | 3,237 | 137 | 32.69 | 87.67 | 7 | 17 |
| T20s | 149 | 139 | 12 | 2,626 | 87 | 20.67 | 124.1 | 0 | 12 |
If, a month ago, you had gone to a bookmaker and asked for odds about Harper and Maddinson being the next batsmen in the Test squad you surely would have been given odds of 100-1 or more.
Maddinson even admitted to this masthead last week there were times when he was not sure when he would get back into the NSW side this season.
An Australian recall was not even part of the discussion.
“Even last year when I was playing club cricket the whole year I wasn’t really banging the door down for (Blues) selection,’’ Maddinson said last week.
“I was not really sure. Being in the last year of my (NSW) contract. And at my age you do wonder if you will get back there and get the chance again.’’
Maddinson’s recall was a jaw dropper but here’s the thing … being shocked by a selection is one thing, naming a better choice quite another.
There is not one batsman in the country who can put his hand on his heart and say “I’m insulted because I had the numbers.”
With the selectors watching like hawks, only Harper, with a multi-geared century, shone on the current Australia A tour of India. The rest of the top order plodded.
Kagiso Rabada cleans up Nic Maddinson on his Test debut
Who would you have picked in the Test squad to face South Africa?
Nic Maddinson
Campbell Kellaway
Ollie Peake
Sam Konstas
Nathan McSweeney
Jason Sangha
Someone else
Cast your vote
None of the top 11 run-scorers in the Sheffield Shield competition last summer averaged more than 37. Wickets were green. Cricket balls had extra licks of lacre and prominent seams … but they weren’t hand grenades.
There was a time, many years ago, when a national selector was heard to say “we’ve got two great kids coming through — Nic Maddison and Steve Smith.”
Smith soared off into another hemisphere but Maddison, despite at one stage being the youngest player to score a century on debut for NSW at 18, never became that headline act, averaging just six in three Tests, the last played a decade ago against Pakistan.
His old team-mates feared when his name made headlines as a player “closing in on Test selection’’ because they felt that pressure brought the worst out in a batsmen who at his best, can bat with the flair of Travis Head.
This time there was no pressure because a far bigger battle than cricket had been won.
Kellaway has surely slipped well down the order…too many failures.
I’d consider Sangha, Patterson and McSweeney first.
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Surprised they didn’t talk Mitch Marsh into playing again.