No place for Scott Boland as Australia announce playing XI for Test series opener against Bangladesh

Australia have announced their playing XI for the Test series opener against Bangladesh. The line-up marks the return of familiar names. Josh Hazlewood has edged fellow pacer Scott Boland for a place in the XI, whereas skipper Pat Cummins returns to lead, having missed the fag end of the Ashes 2025-26 due to fitness concerns. 

Veteran spinner Nathan Lyon returns to the fold after missing the latter half of the home series against England with a hamstring injury. He had to go under the knife and then underwent weeks of rehab to regain bowling fitness.

When asked to explain the toss-up between Hazlewood and Boland, skipper Cummins described it as a "pretty tight call". He also mentioned that Boland will get his fair share of opportunities at some stage of Australia's upcoming stretch of 20 Tests in the next 12 to 14 months.

"They're both pretty class, aren't they?" Cummins said when asked about the selection conundrum involving Hazlewood and Boland. "We were pretty certain we wanted Lyono (Nathan Lyon) in the side, so (it came down to) working out what the make-up of the quicks were.

"It's always a pretty tight call. It's one of those ones where there's not much you can say to Scotty other than obviously there's a lot of cricket coming up.

"But he knows his worth and how good he is. I'm sure he'll be out there at some point pretty soon."

Australia have decided to go in with two allrounders: Cameron Green and Beau Webster. The opening spot belongs to Jake Weatherald and Travis Head. Weatherald made his debut in the Ashes, and Head, who had opened for the side outside of Australia, finished as the leading run-scorer in the series after being promoted to blunt the new ball.

Australia's playing XI for Test series opener vs Bangladesh: 

Jake Weatherald, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Beau Webster, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

Bangladesh squad (first Test)

Najmul Hossain Shanto (c), Mehidy Hasan Miraz (vc), Soumya Sarkar, Shadman Islam, Tanzid Hasan Tamim, Mominul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Litton Das, Amite Hasan, Jaker Ali, Taijul Islam, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud, Syed Khaled Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain Chowdhury, Musfik Hasan

Bangladesh's tour of Australia 2026