In a major shock to the Australian squad, Steve Smith and Adam Zampa have flown home from India ahead of the third T20I between the two teams in Guwahati. With three matches left to play in the series, Cricket Australia decided to recall the two star players, while four more players will fly back home on Wednesday. The likes of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis and Sean Abbott will all return home after the conclusion of the 3rd T20I as part of workload management.
Australia have also announced two replacements for the series, with ‘wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Phillippe and big-hitter Ben McDermott joining ahead of the 3rd T20I in Guwahati.
New South Wales’ Ben Dwarshuis and spinner Chris Green will join the team ahead of the fourth match in Raipur.
Updated Australian squad for 3rd T20I:Matthew Wade (c), Jason Behrendorff, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Chris Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Kane Richardson
“One of the things we had in our planning for this series was to see Steve (Smith) at the top and we’ve now had the opportunity to do that,” Australian stand-in head coach Andre Borovec said afterwards. the second game of the series.
“We are extremely happy with the intention he shows with the bat, (I) can’t really fault it.”
Australia will play a total of 10 T20 internationals before next year’s T20 World Cup in the US and the Caribbean.
Australia T20 squad: Matthew Wade (c), Aaron Hardie, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott (withdrawn), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Chris Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (withdrawn), Glenn Maxwell (withdrawn), Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe , Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Steve Smith (withdrawn), Marcus Stoinis (withdrawn), Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa (withdrawn)
India T20 Squad: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad (vc), Ishan Kishan, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan , Mukesh Kumar, Shreyas Iyer (last two matches only)
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