Victoria teenager Ollie Peake will make his Australia A debut on Friday – his first senior match in the 50-over format – as national selectors cast an eye to the future in the five-match series against Sri Lanka A in Darwin.
The 18-year-old will be accompanied by another exciting Victorian product in 22-year-old Campbell Kellaway, who last summer posted his maiden hundreds in both first-class and List A cricket, and will open the batting alongside Australia capped ‘keeper-batter Josh Philippe.
Peake, who has just one first-class match to his name, will bat at six, where he will be sandwiched between South Australia pair Nathan McSweeney (five) and Liam Scott (seven).
Another adopted South Australian, Jason Sangha, will bat at three, with skipper Matthew Renshaw rounding out the top seven at number four. Sam Elliott, Henry Thornton, Bryce Jackson and Billy Stanlake will make up a four-man pace attack. All matches will be live streamed on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app as well as via Kayo Sports.
As Australia take their first steps in a new World Test Championship cycle over in the Caribbean, and the ODI side will inevitably feature fresh faces following the retirements of Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith, the two-leg Australia A series (three one-dayers, two first-class games) presents an excellent opportunity for a group of batting hopefuls to put their names up in lights.
“I’m super pumped,” said Peake, who shadowed the Australian Test squad through their series opener in Galle in February, before hitting 52 and 21 against Western Australia in his Sheffield Shield debut in March.
“I had about a month off through April and early May, then got back into it leading into the Vics pre-season. It was good to join in there, and then we had a couple of weeks up in Brisbane as well with the Aussie A squad, which was good to hit outside and nice to get some good weather up there as well.”
In a twist on the typical contemporary tale, left-handers Peake and Kellaway both identified their tight defence as the cornerstone of their games, and said it was a strength they had been encouraged to continue improving by the Victoria coaching staff, led by head coach Chris Rogers.
That strong foundation was evident in the pair during their most recent Shield clash at the WACA Ground three months ago. Peake’s first-innings 52 came with his side in trouble at 3-20 on the opening morning, and the highly promising teen was able to repel a strong WA attack for almost four hours. In the second innings, Kellaway batted for more than eight hours, facing 338 balls in what proved to be a match-winning 165no.
Which isn’t to say the pair won’t be prepared to play their shots when the one-day leg of the series gets underway. At last year’s Under 19s World Cup, Peake played key hands of 49 and 46no from No.6 in the semi-final and final respectively as Australia claimed the trophy, while Kellaway’s 117no against the Blues in February saw him work calmly through the gears, hitting his last 67 from 47 balls as the Vics easily chased down 310 in Sydney.
The more experienced of the pair, Kellaway shot to prominence in December 2022 when, as a 20-year-old, he made 105no against the touring South Africans in a four-day match at Allan Border Field in Brisbane. A deep thinker on the game, he is viewed as a more traditional opening bat, though he is hungry for more opportunity in the white-ball formats, having played just nine List A matches with Victoria and 10 BBL games with Melbourne Stars.
“I actually played in a little T10 comp in Melbourne right at the end of the season,” Kellaway said. “With a lot of cricket for Victoria over the summer, you don’t necessarily get to play a heap of short-form stuff, so it was good just to spend some time in the middle and have some match scenarios where I could ply my trade.
“I was definitely learning with every innings … and it was good to know I can succeed in the shorter format, and that gives me a bit of confidence heading into this season.”
Peake, whose father Clinton Peake played 14 matches for Victoria between 1995 and 2001, has learned under the watchful eye of his old man since he was a small child in Geelong, while his rapid entry into the big time continued this week when he was signed by Melbourne Renegades on a one-year deal.