On Tuesday, Cricket Australia (CA) announced the white-ball squad for the forthcoming tour of Pakistan. The limited-overs series consists of three ODIs – part of ICC World Cup ODI Super League – and a solitary T20I.
The 16-member squad doesn’t feature quite a few prominent names of the Aussie cricket, such as opener David Warner, all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
Notably, the players mentioned above are expected to travel to India immediately after the Test series against Pakistan and complete their quarantine requirements to make themselves available to play the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 from April 6.
Although, the limited-overs squad also include some other IPL bound players such as Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott and Nathan Ellis – who will miss at least the first two weeks due to travel quarantine necessities.
“We have picked a talented and versatile squad with a number of challenges to juggle, including the tour structure of predominantly 50 over games, management of several multi-format players in the medium to long term; and our need to build experience and depth in preparation for two short-form World Cups within the next 18 months,” said National Selector George Bailey in a statement as quoted by Cricket.com.au.
“We’re confident the squad can both compete successfully on this tour and continue our progress towards those crucial tournaments,” he added.
The first ODI will take place on March 29, followed by the second and third games to be played on March 31 and April 02. The one-off T20I will then be played on April 05. All the white-ball matches will be hosted by Pindi Cricket Stadium in Rawalpindi.
Here is Australia’s white-ball squad for the Pakistan tour:
Aaron Finch (Captain), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
