Steve Smith and David Warner, returning after a year-long ban, are among Australia's 20 centrally-contracted players for 2019-20.
The list announced by Cricket Australia includes fast bowlers James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was kept out last year even as their careers suffered injury setbacks, while spinner Adam Zampa, another omission last year, has been included. Marcus Harris, who made His Test debut against India in December last year has also been included, indicating that he is determined in the scheme of things in the longer format.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Marsh, who was named the Test vice-captain last year but has since fallen out of favour in all formats, was among the unlucky ones left out. Ashton Agar, Matthew Renshaw, Kane Richardson and Billy Stanlake also didn't make The cut.
"We believe the 2019-20 contract list provides us with a versatile group of players who can represent Australia across all three formats over the contract period," Trevor Hohns, the chairman of selectors said.
"Our key criteria focused on selecting a pool of players who are going to help us in our ambition to win the upcoming World Cup and Ashes Series in England, and who can also play the various formats over the course of the Australian summer."
Contracted players for 2019-20: Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Alex Carey, Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine, James Pattinson , Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
