Australia announce squad for limited-overs tour to West Indies
Australia have announced an extended 23-man squad for the limited-overs tour of the West Indies. The 8-game trip for the Aaron Finch-led outfit will involve five T20Is in St Lucia and three ODIs in Barbados.
Eight players who missed the T20 tour of New Zealand owing to the now-cancelled Test tour of South Africa have all returned to the team. These include former Australian captain Steve Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey and leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson.
Meanwhile, Ben McDermott, Ashton Turner and allrounder Daniel Sams, all of whom played in New Zealand, have been omitted from the team. Sams made himself unavailable for the tour, citing health and wellbeing reasons.
Marnus Labuschagne - who is currently playing County Cricket in England - and Cameron Green are also conspicuous by their absence.
Swepson and uncapped Tanveer Sangha, along with Adam Zampa, make it three leg-spinners in the team, giving an insight into Australia's planning for the upcoming T20 World Cup in India.
“Mitch Swepson has been in exceptional form across all three forms of the game. His Big Bash performances with the Heat have been superb, as was his bowling for Queensland. Ttanveer Sanga was extremely impressive for the Sydney Thunder and we regard him very highly. While he didn’t play in New Zealand it was a great opportunity for a young bowler to be around the group. Along with the class of Adam and Ashton we are very fortunate to have four highly capable spinners on this list,” Australia National Selector Trevor Hohns said in a statement.
Josh Philippe and Carey - who haven't played a T20 game since last August - have been included as wicketkeepers alongside Matthew Wade.
Overall, the biggest strength of this Australian team is the plethora of big-hitting all-rounders in Glen Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Marsh, Moises Henriques and D'Arcy Short.
“Allrounders are such a critical part of the T20 game, along with our spinners. As we have seen evolve over time having players able to give the captain more options make the team far more adaptable to all situations. We feel we have that luxury in this group,” Hons added.
The troika of Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood will appear in white-ball cricket for Australia together after a long time. Riley Meridith and Andrew Tye have retained their place and will bolster the already strong bowling lineup.
Australia squad for Tour of the West Indies
Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Tanveer Sangh, D’Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
The 1st T20I will be held on July 10.