Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell have been picked to make their international debuts in the ODI series in India next month, giving Australia a head start on their World Cup campaign later this year.
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Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell have been picked to make their international debuts in the ODI series in India next month, giving Australia a head start on their World Cup campaign later this year. Paceman Jhye Richardson will also make his long-awaited international comeback, while David Warner, Ashton Agar, and Pat Cummins, who all returned to Australia this week from the Test tour, have all been picked. Cummins flew home this week due to a major family illness, according to a Cricket Australia representative, but he hopes to be back in time for the third Test next week.
Marsh (ankle) and Maxwell (broken leg) both lost substantial time after undergoing surgery over the home summer, but are poised to play in the three-match trip that follows the upcoming Test campaign, with games in Mumbai, Vizag, and Chennai. Both Maxwell, who has been playing in the Sheffield Shield for Victoria this week, and Marsh, who is likely to play in the Marsh One-Day Cup for Western Australia this weekend, will be vital cogs in the 50-over World Cup, which will be hosted in India in October-November this year. It is one of two bilateral one-day series that Australia will play in India before the World Cup, the other being in September, right before the event.
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Richardson is also back in the mix following an injury-enforced break from international cricket, which also saw him miss the latter stages of the KFC BBL due to a hamstring injury. He has not played since the beginning of January. The 26-year-old hasn’t played for Australia since the white-ball phase of last year’s tour of Sri Lanka. Injury has often derailed a promising career that has already seen him play 36 times for Australia. Josh Hazlewood, who captained Australia in a One-Day International last summer, has been ruled out of the series owing to an Achilles injury that has forced him to leave the Test series early.
Cummins will lead the side in only his second series as captain, having had the one-day job added to his Test duties last summer after Aaron Finch retired. Warner was picked despite the fact that he was also returning home from Delhi this week after being concussed and sustaining a hairline fracture in his elbow during the second Test. Head is set to re-join him at the top of the order after thriving as an opener in Australia’s most recent ODI series in November, albeit against a tired England squad that had just won the T20 World Cup. Marsh was out for three months after having keyhole surgery on his left ankle to correct a long-standing ailment, while Maxwell broke his leg in a strange accident at a birthday party.
Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
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