Cummins, Hazlewood named for star-studded Blues

Australia men's captain Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood are locked in for their first state matches in more than three years as New South Wales confirmed their squad for Friday's One-Day Cup clash with Victoria.

The Australian pace pair will use the 50-over contest to ramp up their preparations for home international summer, beginning with next month's three ODIs against Pakistan followed by the five-Test Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India.

Hazlewood is also likely to play in the Blues' next Sheffield Shield match against Queensland in Sydney, meaning he'd miss the first ODI on November 4 in Melbourne.

Steve Smith has been named to face Victoria at the Junction Oval too after scores of 3 and 0 in this week's Shield fixture, but Mitchell Starc has returned home following a sensational start to the home summer with a six-wicket haul in the second innings.

NSW One-Day Cup squad v Victoria: Pat Cummins, Ollie Davies, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Liam Hatcher, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques (c), Sam Konstas, Nic Maddinson, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Lachlan Shaw, Steve Smith

"It's been a while between red-ball games, nearly got to 40 overs … so pretty happy," Starc said during his side's 141-run defeat.

"The rhythm was there, I felt probably the best I've felt for a while actually across the two innings … (it's) a good place to be at the front of the summer."

Cummins hasn't played since the United States' Major League Cricket tournament in July after sitting out Australia's limited-overs tour of the UK last month to focus on strength and conditioning ahead of the home Test summer.

He hasn't played for NSW since March 2021, while Hazlewood last featured for the Blues in the 2020-21 Sheffield Shield final.

Glenn Maxwell has been included for Victoria after getting through a second XI match last week, while opener Matt Short returns having overcome an abductor injury suffered during his match-winning half-century in the fifth ODI against England in September.

Victoria One-Day Cup squad v NSW: Will Sutherland (c), Xavier Crone, Sam Elliott, Peter Handscomb, Sam Harper, Marcus Harris, Glenn Maxwell, Jon Merlo, Todd Murphy, Fergus O'Neill, Mitch Perry, Tom Rogers, Matt Short, Peter Siddle

The Victorian pair will also feature in the ODI series against Pakistan alongside Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood, Smith and Sean Abbott, who has also been managed for the one-day fixture after his 5-62 and 2-52 against Victoria in his first Shield appearance in almost 20 months.

"The last couple of years I've played a lot of white-ball cricket, I'm playing for Australia in white-ball so that's the priority and focus at the moment, especially with the series (against Pakistan) coming up," Short said today.

"We just took this time (since returning from England) to get the hip right for a couple of weeks … I've had a few hip issues over the last couple of years. It was nice to have that time off and get it right for what's coming up."

Veteran NSW batter Daniel Hughes has been ruled out with an elbow injury suffered playing Premier Cricket that could see him sidelined for up to 10 weeks. Moises Henriques will lead NSW with regular white-ball captain Jack Edwards missing with a hamstring strain.

Teenage batting sensation Sam Konstas could make his List A debut after being included in the 13-player squad.

And Chris Green has also been included in what would be his first match for the Blues since handing back his NSW state contract last month to free up opportunities in franchise cricket.

Victoria are top of the One-Day Cup standings after winning their opening two matches, with NSW sitting second after beating Western Australia in their season opener before their second fixture against South Australia was washed out.

One-Day Cup standings 2024-25

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Ties T	No results N/R	Net Run Rate NRR	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Total points PTS
1 NSW Men NSW	3	2	0	0	1	1.558	0	1	11
2 Victoria Men VIC	3	2	1	0	0	-0.171	0	1	9
3 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	3	1	1	0	1	0.738	0	1	7
4 Queensland Bulls QLD	4	1	2	0	1	0.619	0	1	7
5 South Australia Men SA	3	1	1	0	1	-0.851	0	0	6
6 Western Australia Men WA	4	1	3	0	0	-1.093	0	0	4

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

T: Ties

N/R: No results

NRR: Net Run Rate

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

PTS: Total points