Australian batsman Usman Khawaja says both Will Pucovski and Kurtis Patterson are thoroughly deserving of their maiden call-ups to the Test squad.
Pucovski and Patterson are in line to make their Test debuts after impressing national selectors with their ability to score big hundreds at domestic level.
Khawaja was full of praise for the pair after seeing them both in full flight playing for their respective states in the Sheffield Shield.
“I saw Will (Pucovski) bat in the nets a little bit yesterday and I’ve seen him bat on videos and the games against us (Queensland) - he scored a big hundred against us last year,” Khawaja told SEN’s KB and The Doc.
“I’ve seen Kurtis (Patterson) bat a lot. He’s from New South Wales where I grew up and I’ve played a lot of cricket with him at the Sydney Thunder and a lot of Australia A stuff.
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“They’re both very good cricketers and deserve their call-ups to the squad, it’s great to have them around.”
Pucovski, 20, has hit scores of 188 and 243 playing for Victoria in his first eight first-class games, while Patterson, 25, posted twin centuries playing for the Cricket Australia XI against the touring Sri Lankans last week.
The day/night Test at the Gabba gets underway on Thursday and you’ll hear every ball live on 1116 SEN.
Listen to Usman Khawaja’s chat on SEN’s KB and The Doc with Kevin Bartlett and Dr Turf in the player below