Australia Announce 29-Member Preliminary Squad For White-Ball Tour To West Indies And Bangladesh

Cricket Australia has named a preliminary squad for the upcoming white-ball tour of the West Indies and Bangladesh. Australia is scheduled to play 5 T20I matches and 3 ODIs in West Indies and then will travel to Asia to play five T20I matches against the Bangladesh team.

While the West Indies tour will begin on July 9 with the first T20I match, with the entire series to be played at the Daren Sammy Stadium, St Lucia, the first ODI between Australia and West Indies will be played on July 20, with the three-match series to be played at the Kensington Oval, Barbados.

The venue for the Bangladesh T20I series, which will take place in August, is yet to be named and Australia had revealed a 23-man prelim squad.

CA Adds Six More Players To The 23-Man Australia Squad For White-Ball Tour To West Indies And Bangladesh

Earlier the Cricket Australia had named a 23-man preliminary squad under the captaincy of Aaron Finch, but now they have added six more players to that list fearing pullouts due to bubble fatigue and the possibility of big names not touring.

Ben McDermott, Dan Christian, Cameron Green, Ashton Turner, Wes Agar, and Nathan Ellis have all been called up as potential tourists, taking the current group to a mammoth 29. However, this number will be trimmed down before the Australian team leaves for the West Indies on June 28 and national selection chair Trevor Hohns indicated the likelihoods of withdrawals from a number of players.

“The six additions to the Qantas Australian men’s squad follow discussions with players selected in the initial preliminary list for the tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh. During the course of those discussions, it has become clear that recent experiences abroad, including but not limited to extended periods in bio-secure hubs and hard quarantine, have had an impact on the health and wellbeing of some players and their families.

CA has maintained that the wellbeing of players, staff and officials is a top priority, and never more so than during the Covid-19 pandemic given the extraordinary challenges it has placed upon international athletes and sporting teams,” said Trevor Hohns.

This has come after Daniel Sams pulling out of the squad on mental health grounds following the IPL, and others now look certain to follow. Marnus Labuschagne was again overlooked as the star batsman is in the UK playing in County Cricket for Glamorgan and may have logistical issues relating to travel and quarantine.

The five T20Is will be played at the Daren Sammy Stadium in St Lucia on July 9, 10, 12, 14, and 16. Meanwhile, the three ODIs will be played at the Kensington Oval in Barbados on July 20, 22, and 24.

Australia preliminary squad for the West Indies and Bangladesh white-ball tour:

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, D’Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa (to be trimmed before departure)

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