‘Seamless transition for new-look Australia team’

SYDNEY: Australia coach Darren Lehmann said on Tuesday he expects a seamless transition period for his new-look Test team heading into next month’s start of the international cricket season.
Australia will embark on the campaign under new captain Steve Smith and deputy David Warner without the recent retirees Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris, Chris Rogers and Shane Watson.
Despite the wealth of missing experience, Lehmann said he was confident the players coming through would be ready for the challenge in home Test series against New Zealand and the West Indies.
“It will be pretty easy, I think they’re all good kids,” Lehmann said.
“They know how we want to play and how we want to behave and act. We want to make sure we’re entertaining people the whole time and we’ve been very good at that over the past 12 months.”
While the start of Australia’s red-ball training camp in Sydney was washed out on Tuesday, Lehmann welcomed the opportunity to spend more time with squad newcomers Cameron Bancroft and Andrew Fekete.
“I don’t know him well enough yet to be perfectly honest,” Lehmann said of Bancroft, who is regarded as a candidate to open the Test batting with Warner.
“I’m looking forward to spending some time with him if he gets selected.
“His thirst for the game is second to none and he trains the house down, so I’m looking forward to seeing how he goes about it. It’s good to see the young guys come in and see what we’re about.
“This is chance to see how they play and how they face Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc (at training),” he added.