Cricket Australia on Thursday awarded Ashton Agar and Marnus Labuschagne with central players' contracts while the left-handed handed batsman Usman Khawaja has lost his deal with the board.
Among the new deal, opening batsman Joe Burns has also earned a central contract. Wicket-keeper Matthew Wade and pacer Kane Richardson have also been included in the scheme of things.
"Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Kane Richardson, and Matthew Wade received call-ups to the nationally contracted list. All were upgraded to the contracted list in the past 12 months," men's national selector Trevor Hohns said in an official statement.
"Marnus' rise has been meteoric and well documented, Joe has been a good Test match player, Ashton Agar's form in T20 internationals has been exceptional, while Kane Richardson has been outstanding in the twenty over and one-day games," he added.
Cricket Australia contracted men's players: Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazelwood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
From the 2019-20 season, Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb, Shaun Marsh and Nathan Coulter-Nile have been dropped from the list.
"After missing the list last year Mitch Marsh's recent form showed he has a lot of international cricket ahead of him as a batting all-rounder. Mitch proved this with his man of the match performance against New Zealand at the SCG in the last game Australia played and a five-wicket haul in the last Test match he played on the Ashes tour," Hohns said.
The players who have not been awarded contracts as part of the initial squad of 20 can earn upgrades throughout the year by accruing 12 upgrade points.
The players receive five points for a Test match, two for an ODI and one for a T20I.
( With inputs from ANI )
