In the upcoming three-match ODI series against India, Australia will be led by Steve Smith while Pat Cummins will remain back home. Cummins returned to Australia after the second Test to be with his ailing mother.
“Pat won’t be coming back, he’s still taking care of what’s happened back home, Our thoughts are with Pat and his family as they go through that grieving process,” said head coach Andrew McDonald.
The side will be led by Smith, who led in the Test matches when Cummins was unavailable. No replacement has been named for Cummins. The team is already missing Josh Hazlewood and Jhye Richardson, who are both injured. While Nathan Ellis had been called up as a replacement for the latter, Sean Abbott had already been selected. Those who had been injured recently will also be able to return.
This series will serve as a dress rehearsal for the ODI World Cup later in the year.
“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. 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,” said McDonald.
Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), Alex Carey (wk), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa