Australia is all set to field one of their most inexperienced pace attacks in more than 50 years in ODIs as pacer Kane Richardson was ruled out of the upcoming white-ball series in Pakistan.
Richardson suffered a hamstring injury at training on Monday, March 21 in Melbourne, which ruled him out of the three-match ODI series as well as one-off T20I in Lahore against Pakistan.
Left-arm pacer Ben Dwarshuis has been now included in the Australia squad for the white-ball series in Pakistan.
Aussie trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins will return home after the completion of the Test series, leaving Australia with less experienced Jason Behrendorff and Sean Abbott.
Australia will now have Nathan Ellis and Dwarshuis – both yet to make their debut for Australia in supporting roles for the team in the upcoming series against Pakistan.
A Cricket Australia (CA) statement reads: “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.”
Meanwhile, Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch was confident that the squad still has the depth to compete in Pakistan, as they have played a lot of T20 cricket in recent times.
Finch stated: “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.”
He signed off by saying, “Having a lot of faith in their own ability is really important. When you have got guys like Abbott, he's been around for a long time [and] Behrendorff. They've played a lot of state cricket, so I think it'll be fine.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
