South Australia dumped experienced opener Daniel Harris and named two debutants for the first twilight Sheffield Shield game, against Victoria starting on Thursday.
Legspinner Cameron Williams, 20, and batsman Travis Head, 19, will debut for the Redbacks in a fixture to start 90 minutes later than normal at 1230 ACDT, with stumps just before sunset in Adelaide.
Red balls will still be used in the encounter between two states looming as Shield also-rans.
SA are anchored in last place with just two points while the fourth-placed Bushrangers have collected 12 points, lagging behind pacesetters Queensland (30 points) and Western Australia (20 points).
SA stalwart Harris, a veteran of 57 Shield games, was axed after 278 Shield runs an an average of 30.88 this season as SA coach Darren Berry plumped for “generational change”.
“I don’t think Daniel was over the moon,” Berry said of the 32-year-old’s omission.
“It’s just unfortunate his Shield season hasn’t been as good as what we would have liked or he would have liked.
“He is well aware of the situation we’re in moving forward.
“I don’t like to refer to it as an axe, a generational change was moved forward.”
Berry retained callow duo Tom Stray and Carl Tietjens, both with just one Shield game to their names, while summoning batsman James Smith for his first Shield match of the season.
And the Redbacks coach signalled more youth would be blooded in the remainder of the four-day competition.
“But we also have got to blend it in with a mixture of senior players, you can’t just throw the whole lot out, no way,” Berry said.
“We have got some really good senior players and we need to gel one or two of those we think are capable of making an impression … I don’t think in cricket you can just sweep it out and put a whole new team in.”
Teams:
SA: Michael Klinger (capt), Tom Cooper, Adam Crosthwaite, Callum Ferguson, Peter George, Jake Haberfield, Travis Head, Jo Mennie, James Smith, Tom Stray, Carl Tietjens, Cameron Williams (12th man to be named).
Victoria: Cameron White (capt), Scott Boland, Meyrick Buchanan, Ryan Carters, Peter Handscomb, Jayde Herrick, Jon Holland, Alex Keath, Andrew McDonald, Rob Quiney, Chris Rogers, Will Sheridan (12th man to be named).
