Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja have been included in Australia’s 12-man squad for the first two Tests against New Zealand, the first Test starting on Thursday at the Gabba and the following match in Perth.

Burns, 26, will be the new opening partner for David Warner after the retirement of Chris Rogers, while the 28-year-old Khawaja is likely to be at No.3 ahead of skipper Steven Smith, who is expected to move down to No.4.

“We will need to play at our best to beat a very talented New Zealand side, but we think this squad has the goods to do it and also provides an opportunity for some exciting younger players to make their mark in the Test arena,” national selector Rod Marsh said.

“Usman is a very good player of fast-bowling and is a fine technician; we feel he will make a really solid contribution towards our batting this series.

“Joe thoroughly deserves his chance and was unlucky to miss out on the West Indies and Ashes tours off the back of two decent performances in his last Test match for Australia in Sydney. He also put in terrific performances during the recent Australia A Series in India.”

Unfortunately, there was no space for Shaun Marsh in the squad.

SQUAD PROFILE: Take a closer look at Australia’s 12-man squad for the first Test: https://t.co/0EMoy0Cq2R #AUSvNZ pic.twitter.com/zW0P0Ei7w7

— ABC Grandstand (@abcgrandstand) October 30, 2015

Australia squad: David Warner (vc), Joe Burns, Steven Smith (c), Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Adam Voges, Peter Nevill (wk), Peter Siddle, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood