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Lehmann: Test team transition will be ‘easy’

Coach Darren Lehmann predicts the transition to a younger, new-look Australian Test team will be “pretty easy”.

The selectors will have to find at least five new players for next month’s three-Test home series against New Zealand following the recent retirements of captain Michael Clarke, opener Chris Rogers, all-rounder Shane Watson, paceman Ryan Harris and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

A number of relatively inexperienced and uncapped players were chosen for the ultimately cancelled two-Test tour to Bangladesh, but now have to stake their claim again in the interstate one-day competition.

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Lehmann did not anticipate any problems integrating players into the team under new skipper Steve Smith.

“It will be pretty easy to be perfectly honest,” Lehmann said on Tuesday.

“I think they are all good kids, we don’t have too many bad blokes in our group. They know how we want to play and they know how we want to behave and act.

“And making sure they are entertaining people (with their cricket) the whole time, and we have been very good at that over the last 12 months.”

Getty

Darren Lehmann has faith in his younger players. Photo: Getty

Lehmann was confident the players would cope with going from playing with a white ball to a red ball to a pink ball in just a couple of weeks, with the second Test in Adelaide to be the historic first day-night Test and played with a pink ball.

“They chop and change formats pretty well these days from one-dayers to T20s and Test matches,” he said.

“It’s part of international cricket these days.”

Lehmann was excited by the early season form of some of the younger batsmen, including Western Australia’s Cameron Bancroft (245 runs at an average of 81.67) and New South Wales’s Nic Maddinson (312 runs at 104).

He said it was up to the younger players to keep pressure on and perform well against the establised internationals in a talent-packed one-day competition.

“It is high quality. I can’t remember the last time a whole Australia side played the majority of the (domestic) one-day cricket (competition),” Lehmann said.

“It is is exciting to see young guys, someone like (highly touted Tasmania batsman Jake) Doran facing Mitchell Starc.

“For us it is a good viewing and selection platform for the first Test.

“There have been some good hundreds – some blokes would like more runs, some blokes would like more wickets.”

-AAP

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