World Cup spots still up for grabs despite India tour selection, says Justin Langer

Australia plays an away limited overs series against Virat Kohli's men, starting February 24.

Peter Siddle is among the players who have been dropped | Getty

Justin Langer issued a lifeline to players who missed out on selection for the limited overs tour of India by saying that audition for places will continue despite this being Australia's second last ODI series before the ICC Cricket World Cup. 

On Thursday, national selection panel announced a 15-man squad for the five-match ODI series against Virat Kohli's men

Peter Siddle, Mitch Marsh and Billy Stanlake were dropped, while Chris Lynn and Matthew Wade couldn't find places in the Aaron Finch led side. But all is not lost yet for these players if words from Langer are anything to go by. 

"Whether you are on this tour or not, there is still going to be spots up for grabs," he was quoted saying by cricket.com.au, "But the World Cup is going to come up sooner than you know and guys like Steve Smith and Dave Warner are obviously going to bang very hard on the door."

"So there is going to be some competition there, but that’s good as there is going to be some guys that need to stay on their toes the entire time and keep playing great cricket every time we play."

Injured Mitchell Starc won't be there either for the three-week long sojourn in India and it has certainly left the head coach quite frustrated about things. 

"It’s almost two steps forward and one step back. It (the injury) was the most bizarre thing as he didn't even feel it when he was playing," Langer said about the 29-year-old pacer, "He just woke up the next day when he was in bed and his left pec had all blown up."

"It’s really disappointing for him as he bowled so well in that last Test match. (It’s) disappointing for us as we would have loved to have him there, but hopefully, he will be right for that second leg against Pakistan."

Australia's squad:- Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short (cover for Shaun Marsh), Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa

Fixtures:-

First T20IFebruary 24, Bengaluru

Second T20I: February 27, Visakhapatnam

First ODI: March 2, Hyderabad

Second ODI: March 5, Nagpur

Third ODI: March 8, Ranchi

Fourth ODI: March 10, Mohali

Fifth ODI: March 13, Delhi

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 07 Feb, 2019

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