REUTERS, Sydney

Uncapped Nathan McSweeney has beaten out his rivals to secure the vacant spot in the Australia team for the first Test against India in Perth, with head selector George Bailey backing the 25-year-old to open the batting later this month.

Australia has been engrossed for weeks in a heated debate over who should take the spot left open in the batting order by the season-ending injury to all-rounder Cameron Green.

With Steve Smith’s brief period as a Test opener already signalled as being over, McSweeney has been given the nod to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order when the first of five Tests against India gets under way on Nov. 22.

McSweeney, who usually plays at number three for his state Queensland, scored 14 and 25 in his two innings as an opener in the “A” match against India in Melbourne, which concluded on Saturday.

That proved sufficient to see off the challenge of teenager Sam Konstas, as well as tried and tested options Cameron Bancroft and Marcus Harris, even if the latter scored a 74 in the first innings of the match.