Uncapped spinner with Sri Lankan roots gets Aussie ‘A’ call-up

When Australia named their squad for the ongoing unofficial Test series against Sri Lanka ‘A’, it was a roll call of familiar names. Matt Renshaw, Kurtis Patterson, Jason Sangha, Nathan McSweeney — all seasoned campaigners either in the Baggy Green or prominent performers in Sheffield Shield cricket.

- BY REX CLEMENTINE

But one name stood out like a sore thumb: Zanden Jeh.

The 22-year-old left-arm spinner has never played a single Sheffield Shield game, yet finds himself donning national colours in the ‘A’ series - a rare feat in the rigid and fiercely competitive Australian cricketing structure, widely regarded as the strongest domestic system in the game.

Jeh's selection bucks the trend in a big way. In a country where you usually have to pay your dues in state cricket before sniffing national contention, Jeh has leapfrogged the pecking order. He's one of the very few in recent memory to wear the green and gold before even cracking the state XI.

So why the big fuss about a relatively unknown spinner?