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Ahead of the limited-overs series against Pakistan, Australia have received a major blow as pacer Kane Richardson has been ruled out of the ongoing tour due to a hamstring injury.
The South Australian speedster sustained the injury on Monday (March 21) while training in Melbourne. Notably, Australia will now field an inexperienced pace bowling attack considering the first-choice seamers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins won’t be a part of the white-ball fixtures.
As a result of Richardson’s injury, the selectors have included left-arm seamer Ben Dwarshuis to the squad for the white-ball leg consisting of three ODIs and a solitary T20I, starting March 29 in Lahore.
“Although the injury is considered minor, it was decided the long trip to Pakistan along with four games in eight days and short turnarounds it was in Richardson’s best interests to remain home,” said Cricket Australia (CA) in a statement.
Jason Behrendorff, with only 11 matches under his belt, will now be the most experienced pacer in the Aussie pace attack. Similarly, Sean Abbott has played two ODIs, while Dwarshuis and Nathan Ellis are yet to make their debut. Although, the tourists have some other pace bowling options in the form of all-rounders like Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Green, and Marcus Stoinis.
Despite losing the frontline seamer, Aussie skipper Aaron Finch was confident that the squad still had the depth to compete in Pakistan. Finch said the bowlers are inexperienced, but they have all the skills to prove their potential.
“One thing that will help is the guys have played a lot of T20 cricket. They’re quite inexperienced for Australia, but I think playing T20 cricket will help them in that regard. There’s a lot of skill in the group and guys that have been around one-day cricket for a long time domestically as well,” said Finch, as quoted by Cricket.com.au.
Here is Australia’s updated ODI and T20I squad:
Aaron Finch (captain), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa.
