South Australian selectors have made three changes to their Mercantile Mutual Cup team ahead of Saturday's fixture against Tasmania at the Adelaide Oval. Jason Gillespie, Brad Young and Brett Swain are the trio to be inserted into the twelve while Mark Harrity, Paul Rofe and Peter McIntyre surrender their places from the team which lost a thrilling encounter in Brisbane last weekend.

Given an unexpected boost with the early return home of both Gillespie and Young after Australia's shock quarter-final loss to India in the ICC KnockOut tournament in Kenya, the Redbacks have moved quickly to bolster an attack which conceded 273 runs to the Bulls last Sunday. Gillespie will join with Swain to confer a more experienced edge to the Redbacks' pace division, while Young will re-assume his role as the state's number one slow bowler.

Gillespie's inclusion, in particular, will be a heartening one for South Australian fans given that injury restricted the speedster to just one appearance in his state's one-day colours last summer. A menacing paceman when at his best, he has been in excellent form for Australia since returning to the national side in the three-match one-day series against South Africa in Melbourne in August and shapes as a very difficult player for Tasmania to counter. Similarly, the return of Young - who captured six wickets in the Cup last season - offers the side more spin bowling penetration than McIntyre seemed able to generate on the placid pitch in use in the match against Queensland. Swain, too, is a very valuable member of the team - and is not only a dependable contributor with the ball but also useful at times with the bat, a notion underlined by his attainment of the highest strike rate achieved by any South Australian batsman in last summer's competition.

The Tasmanians, meanwhile, have added star international batsman Ricky Ponting and promising young paceman Brett Geeves to the squad of fourteen that has already spent several days in Adelaide warming up with practice matches against a series of Australian Cricket Academy sides. They are expected to announce their twelve - for their opening fixture of the domestic season proper - after their final practice session on Friday.

The full South Australian side is: Darren Lehmann (c), Greg Blewett (v/c), Chris Davies, David Fitzgerald, Gillespie, Ryan Harris, Ben Johnson, Graham Manou, Swain, Jeff Vaughan, Paul Wilson, Young.

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