McSweeney bringing his A game to captaincy role

It's one of cricket's curiosities that Nathan McSweeney boasts significantly more first-class captaincy experience for Australia A teams than with his state side at Sheffield Shield level.

Re-appointed skipper for the nation's unofficial second XI in two upcoming games against India A in Mackay and Melbourne after three previous stints in charge against New Zealand A, McSweeney continues to boost his captaincy credentials.

Come the conclusion of the India A games next month, only ex-Test keeper Brad Haddin can claim more matches at the helm of Australia A in its modern iteration having done so six times between 2005 and 2013.

Yet McSweeney is in his first year as skipper of his adopted state, South Australia, and his sole game as a Shield captain came last week when his unbeaten second-innings century secured his team a hard-earned draw against New South Wales.

The 25-year-old also led Brisbane Heat to last year's BBL title having cut his teeth as captain with school and age teams in his native Queensland.

But even though his leadership skills have been recognised and rewarded by national selectors a number of times of late, including the job with the Prime Minister's XI against Pakistan last summer, he admits he's still very much learning his craft.

"I've captained a little bit coming through and growing up playing cricket, but to captain and lead a state like South Australia with such rich history is a great honour and privilege," McSweeney said yesterday.

"I'm lucky enough to have plenty of players who have captained the state in the squad, and to have Travis Head there (in Sydney) last week was awesome for me to bounce ideas and learn as much as I can while on the job.

"Everyone's got a different style of leadership and captaining, so I just back my strengths.

"You're never going to get it always right but just make sure I learn from my mistakes."

Early indications are the responsibilities of captaincy on a full-time rather than invitational basis won't weigh too heavily on the classically elegant right-hander, who was cruelly run out for 55 in the first innings against NSW before finishing 127no in the second.

But his recent batting form – he finished his most productive Shield season in 2023-24 as SA's leading runs scorer and fourth in the competition with 762 at 40.11 including three centuries – means he also now carries a burden of expectation.

While the only current vacancy in Australia's Test line-up is for a specialist opener to partner Usman Khawaja, McSweeney's name is regularly mentioned in discussions about the most promising prospects among generation next.

"You've got to embrace it," McSweeney said of the scuttlebutt he is perhaps destined to progress from an Australia A regular to the senior men's team.

"You've got to think about it, you see it in the news and in the papers.

"It's not a bad thing, they could be saying worse things about me so just acknowledge that and it doesn't change the way I want to go about my cricket.

"That's the dream growing up, you want to play for Australia.

"I'd like to think that I continue to get better each year (and) in Shield cricket I've been able to be pretty consistent.

"I'm definitely confident in my game at the moment and if I were to get an opportunity I think I would be ready, but all I can do is continue to focus on what I can control and that's preparing well for South Australia and hopefully winning games for my state."

McSweeney acknowledges that, while representing Australia A is as close as players can get to a Baggy Green Cap without actually receiving one, matches like the forthcoming pair against India A can also devolve into glorified practice games.

The last time India fielded an outfit for pre-Test 'warm-up' games in Australia in 2020-21, both ended as draws while last summer's PM's XI fixture against Pakistan yielded just one innings per team before a wild storm curtailed the match a day early.

However, there are suggestions India might use the second A-game at the MCG as an opportunity to get some match practice into several Test stars ahead of the start of the NRMA Insurance Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series in Perth on November 22.

That would mean not only a rare red-ball outing at Test cricket's oldest venue for McSweeney whose only previous MCG appearance in Sheffield Shield came for Queensland five summers ago.

It also raises the possibility of him marshalling a bowling attack led by Test-capped duo Scott Boland and Michael Neser while trialling his own batting credentials against an international-standard opposition.

"I feel like my game's ready to play international cricket, but you don't really know until you step out there and you experience it yourself," he said of the challenge India A potentially poses.

"Hopefully they (India Test stars) do play, it would be a great test for me and everyone playing in that game.

"And playing at the MCG is awesome.

"I've only done it once before when I used to play for Queensland, so I'm really looking forward to getting back out there."