Australia have drafted Mitchell Starc into the squad for the third and final T20I of the ongoing series against India as a replacement for the injured Billy Stanlake.
Stanlake suffered a moderate grade ankle sprain during a catching drill ahead of the washed-out second T20I in Melbourne. He was replaced by Nathan Coulter-Nile for the game and has now been ruled out of the final game in Sydney with Starc taking his place in the 13-man squad.
Starc last played a T20 international in September 2016, with his last home game in the format coming further back in 2014. The left-arm pacer, who was originally rested for the ongoing three-match T20I series against India, turned out for his state side New South Wales in the last round of Sheffield Shield fixtures against Queensland.
He was expected to sit out the next round of the first class competition in a bid to prepare for the upcoming four-match Test series against India starting from December 6.
This is what Australia captain Aaron Finch said about the speedster, “Starc has got so much experience in the limited-overs games as well and we’ve seen how dominant he can be when he gets it right with the ball.”
Australia leads the series 1-0 after winning the first match of the series by 4 runs (DLS) at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday.
Australia’s revised squad:
Aaron Finch(c), Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc
