Test players available for Matador Cup

Australia's Test players will be available for the Matador Cup one-day tournament and a red-ball camp will be held in mid-November to help preparations for the first Test of the home summer against New Zealand. The changes come after the cancellation of Australia's Test tour of Bangladesh due to security concerns, which was confirmed on Thursday night.

The Matador Cup begins on Monday next week and although all the squads had been named, there will now be changes due to the flow of Test players back into the state systems. There will also be an expected flow-on to the Cricket Australia XI squad, the seventh team introduced for this year's Matador Cup made up of fringe players who did not make state squads.

Importantly, the cancellation of the tour also means Australia's Test players will have limited red-ball cricket before the first Test against New Zealand at the Gabba on November 5. However, a two-day red-ball preparation camp has been scheduled for October 13-14 at Hurstvill Oval in Sydney, with centre-wicket practice and net sessions for Australia's Test cricketers.

As a result of the camp, the first round of Sheffield Shield cricket, scheduled to be a day-night round, has been pushed back a day. The Shield competition will now start around Australia on October 28 to give players involved in the Matador Cup final an additional day's preparation ahead of their first Shield game.

"The tour of Bangladesh was going to be an important series for our relatively new-look Test team heading into the Australian summer, so we're disappointed it won't go ahead," Pat Howard, Cricket Australia's executive general manager team performance, Pat Howard, said.

"Given the circumstances, it's important we give our Test players the best preparation leading into the summer so they will now be available to play in the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup throughout October to get valuable match experience in Australian conditions.

"We want the best players playing in the Matador Cup so we will manage the movements of the Australian players and the flow-on impact this will have on the new CA XI team. We will also hold a red-ball camp in Sydney to provide extra preparation for Australian players. We have scheduled this camp to fall in the quietest two-day period of the Matador Cup to limit player movement during the tournament.

"While we believe the red-ball camp will provide solid preparation for the Australian players, the first Sheffield Shield round will provide a long-form match opportunity for those players. We have therefore pushed back the first Shield round to start a day later on the 28 October to give the Matador Cup finalists an extra day to prepare for their first Shield match.

"Australian players will be made available for the first Shield round dependent on injury and workloads ahead of the first Test against New Zealand."