Cameron Bancroft has a chance to bat his way into Australia's Test squad with a match-winning innings on day three of the selection trial in Southampton. Bancroft, returning to a national side for the first time since copping a nine-month ban for his role in the ball-tampering scandal, will resume on 25 at 8:00pm AEST on Thursday.
The opener pushed his side to 2-35 at stumps on day two of the intra-squad clash in pursuit of their target of 156, having excelled against an attack featuring Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Peter Siddle. Mitchell Starc, rested from day two's final session, is expected to join his fellow Test pacemen in terrorising Bancroft on Thursday.
Bancroft was expected to be left out of the touring party named on Friday but would be hard to ignore if he emerges with a match-winning dig. This is especially so, given so many batsmen fluffed their lines in the final audition for spots.
David Warner, who top-scored with 58, praised Bancroft: 'He scraps away, he's very good at that. He had good intent, he was moving his feet forward and committing … the guys that actually had that attention to detail and adapt, they've done very well.'
The combined score from all four innings is currently 32-430, with Steve Smith having logged scores of 8 and 9 in his first four-day outing since serving a year-long ban. The contest was designed to help settle a raft of Ashes selection debates but so far it has done little to help Justin Langer pick a top six, let alone a squad.
