Cricket Australia (CA) announced an 18-member squad for the upcoming limited-overs series against West Indies. Steven Smith will miss the trip due to an elbow injury, while six others – David Warner, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson – have opted out after requesting ‘not to be considered for the tour for various reasons’.
Earlier, CA had added six players – Ben McDermott, Dan Christian, Cameron Green, Ashton Turner, Wes Agar and Nathan Ellis – to its 29-member preliminary squad for the tour. Among them, only Green has not found any room in the final roster. Ellis will travel as a standby option, alongside Tanveer Sangha.
This will be Agar’s maiden international call-up, who plays for South Australia and Adelaide Strikers. Christian last donned the Australian jersey back in 2017.
Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will return to Australia’s white-ball set-up after missing out on their recent New Zealand T20I series.
Despite being part of the IPL contingent who were in hotel quarantine in Maldives, Jason Behrendorff, Moises Henriques and Riley Meredith have made themselves available for the tour. Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson, on the other hand, returned to Australia early before the tournament was suspended.
Australia will play five T20Is and three ODIs against West Indies, starting 9 July. All T20I matches will take place in St Lucia, while the ODIs will be at the Kensington Oval, Barbados.
Australia squad for West Indies tour: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey (wk), Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.
Standby options: Nathan Ellis, Tanveer Sangha.