Steve Smith will lead Australia in the upcoming three-match ODI series against India as Pat Cummins continues to stay back in Australia, during the second Test of the series, Cummins returned to Australia to be with his ailing mother, who later passed away.
Steve Smith will lead Australia in the upcoming three-match ODI series against India as Pat Cummins continues to stay back in Australia. During the second Test of the series, Cummins returned to Australia to be with his ailing mother, who later passed away.
“Pat won’t be coming back, he’s still taking care of what’s happened back home, Our thoughts are with Pat and his family as they go through that grieving process,”
said head coach Andrew McDonald.
Smith, who led in the Test matches in Cummins’s absence, will take over the side. There has been no replacement named for Cummins. Josh Hazlewood and Jhye Richardson, who were injured and are currently out of the lineup, are already missed by the team.
While Nathan Ellis had been called up as a replacement for the latter, Sean Abbott was already listed on the squad. David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, and Mitchell Marsh will all make their comebacks to Australia after recent injury setbacks.
The series will act as a dress rehearsal for the ODI World Cup set to take place later in the year in the same country.
“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 all-rounders picked in the squad and can they all play in the one team? So we’ve got to answer a few of those questions,”
said McDonald.
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