Lehman wants this player to open versus IND in 1st Test

Former Australia coach Darren Lehman has predicted his Australia XI for the first Test versus India and has included uncapped batsman Marcus Harris as the opener in the team.

Australia the best place to hand debut to Harris: Lehman 

The former Australia player explained that Harris is the in-form player in the domestic competition and his record has been outstanding in the last couple of years. Lehman noted that Harris has made a couple of Shield hundreds in finals.

Marcus Harris, Peter Handscomb and Chris Tremain named in Australia's 14-man squad https://t.co/mv8fkULyVl #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/S3wfm2Ou7y

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) November 22, 2018

So he believes that if they are going to give Harris a debut then there is not a better place to do it than in Australia.

Good luck to Marcus Harris, I hope he has a long and successful test career. But it’s sad that an average of 35.5 in first class cricket is enough to get a start these days.

— Peter Psaltis (@peterp79) November 22, 2018

The former Australia coach admitted that India are a good attack but he thinks Harris is good enough to play. He pointed that that the opener made 150 on debut when he was coaching Queensland and he thought this kid is very much in the mould of Justin Langer with probably a few more expansive shots.

Lehman also noted that he would have liked to have Renshaw in there but he just hasn’t made the runs.

Play Handscomb to counter Ashwin: Lehman

The former Aussie player said that if R Ashwin plays in India’s team then he is playing Peter Handscomb as he helps negate Ashwin. He further explained that he would name both Head and Handscomb in the squad and then see how India shape up.

Also read: 2 uncapped players in AUS squad versus IND

Lehman’s playing XI versus India for first Test

Aaron Finch, Marcus Harris, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb, Mitch Marsh, Tim Paine (c), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Travis Head (12th man) and Peter Siddle (13th man).

The first Test of the four-match Test series  between India and Australia will start from December 06. Australia have announced the squad for the first two Tests.