Australia Name ODI Squad For India Tour

Australia, on Tuesday, announced their 14-man squad for the upcoming tour of India. Marnus Labuschagne, who has been a revelation in Tests this year, headlines the new selections in the squad. The right-handed batsman has not looked back since replacing Steve Smith as a concussion substitute during the second Ashes Test this summer.

In the ongoing home season, he has scored three Test centuries in a row and is also the leading run-scorer in Tests this year. Such has been performance this year that he is already in the top five of ICC Test Rankings for batsmen. Labuschagne’s form in 50-over cricket has been good too. He averaged 60 in the domestic One-Day Cup this season.

Australia have named a strong top order for the tour with David Warner, Aaron Finch and Steve Smith in the top three. Along with Labuschagne, Ashton Turner and Peter Handscomb are in the middle order. Both Turner and Handscomb had impressed for Australia when the team from Down Under visited India earlier this year.

Among notable omissions, there was no room for the World Cup trio of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis or Nathan Lyon. All the three players will instead play in the Big Bash League while their teammates play in the subcontinent. Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Nathan Coulter-Nile have also been dropped while Jason Behrendorff is unavailable due to injury.

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Bowling options:

As far as bowling options are concerned, Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Sean Abbott and Kane Richardson are the five pacers in the team. Hazlewood was not a part of Australia’s World Cup squad while Abbott’s only previous ODI came in the UAE in October 2014. Adam Zampa is the sole specialist spinner in the team.

Meanwhile, assistant coach Andrew McDonald will coach the team India while head coach Justin Langer will take a rest.

Australia squad:

Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (vc), Pat Cummins (vc), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, David Warner, Adam Zampa