Inglis’ selection alongside McSweeney maintains Australia’s recent tendency to choose the best batters in the view of the national panel and then find roles for them from there. At 29, Inglis was also among the younger players available, and Bailey said his ability to shift between white- and red-ball formats with consistent success had been part of decision-making.

Recently anointed the latest Australian white-ball captain, Inglis has been one of the form batters of the Sheffield Shield this season, compiling 297 runs at an average of 99. He goes on the attack similarly to how Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh have influenced games for Australia.

“Just think his game’s in a really good place, particularly for certain roles in the team, love his ability to put pressure back on the opposition at the right times and drive the game forward,” Bailey said. “So he certainly has a game that at different times, in Asia or somewhere like that could come in.

“Particularly if you look back at the last couple of years when he has come back into Shield cricket, he hasn’t had long bursts of Shield cricket, so his ability to bounce in and out of formats has been really impressive.”

McSweeney has 291 runs at 97 this year for South Australia, to go with scores of 39, 88 not out, 14 and 25 for Australia A. The last two innings were as an opener.

The 25-year-old will be the first specialist batter to debut for Australia’s men’s Test team since Will Pucovski in 2021.

Scott Boland has also been included alongside frontline quicks Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc. The loss of Michael Neser with a hamstring injury for Australia A is a significant blow to the selectors’ depth charts, and Bailey noted the performance of Brendan Doggett against India A in Mackay among others in the pace bowling queue.

“Icing on the cake is a good way to describe it,” Bailey said of how he had assessed the Australia A games before informing players of their selection on Saturday night. “We had an idea of which way we wanted to go.

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“We really value Australia A cricket – the great Australian bake-off, it wasn’t that for us, but I think it’s important to put a bit of an onus on these games. It would’ve been disrespectful to the game to have announced this squad a week ago. [But] they don’t necessarily send someone from the bottom of the pile to the top.”

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