Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Australia’s Ashes squad will be announced nine days prior to the first Test

Cricket Australia has announced that the Ashes squad for the first Test against England in Brisbane will be revealed on November 12, just nine days prior to the start of the historic series.

This means that players like Phillip Hughes, Aaron Finch, George Bailey and Mitchell Johnson all stand a good chance of making the cut.

In the 2010-11 Ashes series, Cricket Australia named the squad 10 days prior to the start of the first Test, which didn’t sit well with all-rounder Shane Watson and numerous other players.

“Throughout last summer I felt there was a growing sense of panic all over the place which, to be honest, wasn’t helped by CA announcing a bigger than usual Ashes squad down at the Rocks in Sydney in Nov 2010,” Watson wrote in his 2011 autobiography, Watto.

“I don’t know why the squad was named that early; there was still one more round of first-class games as well as the Australia A game against England to be completed. For guys who might have been under pressure, there was another week to be able to find some form. On the flip side, the players who were in contention for a place had a chance to put some pressure on the guys already in the team.”

The main questions surrounding this year’s squad announcement are which batsman will occupy the vacant number six spot and which bowlers will replace the pace trio of James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc and Jackson Bird, all of whom are recovering from back injuries.