Keeper Peirson to link up with Aus Ashes squad

Queensland wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson will join the Australia squad in the leadup to the second Ashes Test at Lord's in place of Josh Inglis who will return home for the birth of his first child, the team said on Friday.

The uncapped Peirson, who was in the Australia 'A' side which toured in New Zealand earlier this year, trained with Test squad members in Brisbane last week.

He will be back-up for Australia's regular wicketkeeper Alex Carey until Inglis returns to the squad for the rest of the five-Test series against England.

Peirson has played in 65 First-class matches so far, having scored over 3000 runs at 34.75 including six hundred.

Notably, his performance with the bat has seen a stunning rise in the last 30 games since the start of the 2020-21 summer, averaging 42.56 with all of his centuries coming during this period.

He even smashed an unbeaten 128 for Australia 'A' in Sri Lanka last year, in a fourth-innings run-chase of 370 in Hambantota.

Australia hold the urn after winning the last Ashes 4-0 at home in 2021-22.