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Published 10 Jun, 2004 12:00am

McGrath named for Sri Lanka Tests

MELBOURNE, June 9: Australia have included leading fast bowler Glenn McGrath in a 13-man squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka starting on July 1.

McGrath made a tentative return from a 10-month layoff following ankle surgery in Australia's 3-0 whitewash of Zimbabwe in the one-day series which ended in Harare last month.

Uncapped young South Australia fast bowler Shaun Tait has been included in the squad named on Wednesday and the selection of Western Australia paceman Brad Williams is subject to a fitness test on the right-armer's back injury.

Leg spinner Shane Warne is the only frontline slow bowler in the squad. "Considering the type of wickets we're likely to get, it was highly unlikely that we'd play two spinners which ruled both Cameron White and Stuart MacGill out of consideration," Australia chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns said in a statement.

McGrath took a combined one for 87 from 26 overs and bowled behind Jason Gillespie and Michael Kasprowicz in the third one-dayer against Zimbabwe. The 34-year-old said last month he would draw inspiration from South African Allan Donald's success at reinventing himself as a first-change bowler in the latter part of his career.

Australia's leading pace bowler with 430 wickets from 95 Tests, McGrath can leapfrog New Zealand's Richard Hadlee (431) and India's Kapil Dev (434) into fourth place on the list of all-time wicket-takers behind Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan (527), West Indian Courtney Walsh (519) and Warne (517).

Sri Lanka will arrive in Darwin on June 20.

SQUAD: Ricky Ponting (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Jason Gillespie, Matthew Hayden, Simon Katich, Michael Kasprowicz, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Justin Langer, Darren Lehmann, Shane Warne, Brad Williams, Shaun Tait. -Reuters

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