Australian skipper Pat Cummins will not be able to captain the Australian side during the ODI series against India. Australia announced that Pat Cummins will not go to India after missing the final two Tests, Steve Smith would continue to serve as captain for the three-match one-day international series starting later this week.
After the second Test in Delhi, Cummins left the tour to take care of his mother Maria, who passed away from breast cancer last week as the final game was being played in Ahmedabad.
While Nathan Ellis was just returned after Jhye Richardson had to leave early due to needing hamstring surgery, Cummins has not been replaced in the 15-man team.
McDonald spoke to the media
Australian head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed the news that the fast bowler won’t return to India for the 3-match ODI series.
“Pat won’t be coming back, he’s still taking care of what’s happened back home,” coach Andrew McDonald said. “Our thoughts are with Pat and his family as they go through that grieving process.”
Josh Hazlewood, who also served as captain of the ODI squad during the England series when Cummins missed a game, is not available because of a persistent Achilles issue.
David Warner will make a comeback, according to McDonald. Warner missed the final two Tests due to an elbow fracture.
He further said that the team will try some new combinations in the series before the World Cup.
“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,” said the coach.
“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.”
Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, K L Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umran Malik, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkatt
Stay updated with all the cricketing action, follow Cricadium on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
