Australia have decided to send their spin bowling all-rounder Ashton Agar home from the ongoing tour of India, with the Western Australia cricketer becoming the third player from the initial squad to be sent home after injured key players Josh Hazlewood and David Warner.
According to cricket.com.au, the official website of the sport’s governing body Cricket Australia (CA), Ashton Agar was the second-choice spinner in the team after right-arm legendary off-spinner Nathan Lyon less than one month from the time their tour of India began, on February 9.
In the first Test, while Australia played with another novice in the form of Todd Murphy, a right-arm off-spinner from Victoria, they called up left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann from all the way from Australia and did not select Ashton Agar, who made his Test debut 8 years ago in England during Ashes 2013.
Australia selector Tony Dodemaide has informed that Ashton Agar has returned home to Perth so that he is available for selection in the ongoing Sheffield Shield tournament, adding that this is the final change to the touring party in India.
Tony Dodemaide, who is in New Delhi with the Australian squad, informed the media that,
”(Agar) has worked incredibly hard, he’s done his absolute best to support the team. We acknowledge all the work he’s done, he’s worked his backside off.
“In the first Test it was a very close call (between Murphy, Agar and Swepson) as to what spin structure we went with. The question mark of whether the two off-spinners could go together. We had Matthew Kuhnemann coming in for the second Test – again a very close call with that. We just decided that Matthew’s style would be suited to the conditions there,”
Tony Dodemaide added.
The 29-year-old Ashton Agar will be available for selection for Western Australia’s clash against Tasmania to be played at the Western Australia Cricket Association (WACA) Ground in Perth.
Even though Ashton Agar is not a regular red-ball player for Australia and even in their domestic setup, the selector added that the players usually find it difficult switching between formats.
“Ronnie (coach Andrew McDonald) has talked about the difficulty of remaining an all-format player in any discipline, spinning equally so. There are very few who can adjust really quickly and who are suited to all three formats. To be fair to Ash he doesn’t play a lot of first-class cricket either and that’s the nature of the modern game, isn’t it?
“He’s continuing to work on that, he’s worked really hard on that with the coaches, particularly (assistant coach and former left-arm spinner) Dan Vettori. But right now (returning home) is a logical and constructive way forward for Ash and the team,”
Tony Dodemaide added.