Credit: X
Cricket Australia (CA) has announced a strong 23-player group who are included in Australia’s annual central contract list for 2024-25 seasons. The pace duo of Xavier Bartlett and Nathan Ellis have landed their maiden lucrative Australian contract.
Apart from Bartlett and Nathan Ellis, the latest entrants in the central contracts are Victoria batter Matt Short and Western Australia pace all-rounder Aaron Hardie. The addition of Hardie, however, comes at the expense of Marcus Stoinis, who has been omitted from their annual contract despite being in the line for the T20 World Cup in the USA and West Indies.
Matt, Aaron, and Xavier have been extremely impressive: Bailey
According to the national selector George Bailey, "Matt, Aaron, and Xavier have been extremely impressive in the early stages of their international careers. Their performances and the way they have embraced the international stage has been exciting to watch."
Among other notable omissions from the contract are, left-arm orthodox all-rounder Ashton Agar, who last played an international game in September 2023. Apart from him, Marcus Harris, Michael Neser, and T20I player David Warner are snubbed from the central contracts.
Cricket Australia’s centrally contracted players for 2024-25
Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, Xavier Bartlett, Sean Abbott, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Alex Carey, Mitchell Starc, Aaron Hardie, Nathan Lyon, Jhye Richardson, Scott Boland, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Nathan Ellis, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matt Short, Adam Zampa
The upcoming home season of Australian cricket is marked by the historic Border Gavaskar Trophy that is scheduled to take place at the end of the year 2024-25. The series will be a five-match encounter with Perth to host the series opener from November 22-26, 2024.