Pat Cummins, who lost his mother recently, will not be joining the Australian team for the white-ball leg of their India tour. Instead, Steve Smith will continue to lead the team. Cummins returned to Australia before the third Test and missed two matches in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which India won 2-1. In Cummins’ absence, Smith led the team to a comeback win in Indore, after losing in Nagpur and Delhi. The head coach expressed sympathy for Cummins and his family during this difficult time.
STEVE SMITH: I ENJOY CAPTAINING IN INDIA
After Pat Cummins decided to stay back home following the loss of his mother, Steve Smith will continue to lead Australia in the white-ball leg of the team’s India tour. There is no replacement named for Cummins as of now. Additionally, the team is already dealing with the absence of Josh Hazlewood and Jhye Richardson due to injuries. Nathan Ellis has been called up as a replacement for the latter. And Sean Abbott has already been named in the squad. However, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, and Mitchell Marsh will return to the squad after recovering from their injuries.
The series is considered a dress rehearsal for the upcoming ODI World Cup which will take place later this year in India.
“We’ve got a couple of conversations around the balance of the team we want to play, we’ve gone in with a structure with eight batters to bat a little bit deeper, we’ve tried that. So there’ll be a mix of combinations as we lead into the World Cup. (There are) a lot of allrounders picked in the squad and can they all play in the one team? So we’ve got to answer a few of those questions,”
Coach McDonald said.
Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Alex Carey (wk), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
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