7-year-old leg-spinner Brave Archie earns Australia call-up for Boxing Day Test

Image Credits: Twitter/@cricketcomau

Ahead of the all-important Boxing Day Test against India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Australia have included seven-year-old leg spinner Brave Archie in the national squad as the 15th member. 

Archie was given the happy news of his inclusion in the team on the day he turned seven at BUPA Family Day,Yarra Park on Saturday.

Earlier this month, the young spinner's inclusion in the Test squad was made public when he had received a phone call from Australia's head coach Justin Langer during the team's tour to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the two-match series against Pakistan. 

Archie, who was ecstatic to hear the good news, expressed his desire to bowl out Indian skipper and one of the world's best Test batsmen at the moment, Virat Kohli. 

The leg-spinner from Adelaide is all set to co-captain Australia alongside Tim Paine while he will also partner star off-spinner Nathan Lyon. 

Archie was also called up to join the national team for a training session at the Adelaide Oval ahead of the opening Test.

Meet the newest member of the Australian Test team: https://t.co/vmcqkK0tqE @MakeAWishAust | #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/0EMBSu4yEm — cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 23, 2018

The seven-year-old is nothing less than a superhero. At such young age, Archie had already endured a brutally tough period which many do not face in their entire life time. He underwent a heart surgery lasting more than seven hours when he was just three-month old. 

Just a few months later, Archie had to go through another injury to fix the faulty valves and irregular rhythms of his heart. 

Recently, Archie's family had to fly back to Melbourne for his third open-heart procedure, which was also overcome by the boy.

And  now, he has got the chance fulfill his desire of leading team Australia. All this was made possible via Make-A-Wish Australia, who learnt about Archie's circumstances and desires.

The four-match series is currently levelled at 1-1 after India won the opening Test by 36 runs before Australia bounced back to clinch a 146-run win over the visitors in Perth.

The two squads are as follows:

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c, wk), Josh Hazlewood (vc), Mitch Marsh (vc), Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Archie Schiller.

India squad: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Parthiv Patel (wk), Ravi Ashwin, Ravi Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.