In a major shake-up to the Australia squad, the pair of Steve Smith and Adam Zampa has been flown back home from India ahead of the 3rd T20I between the two teams in Guwahati. With three matches yet to be played in the series, Cricket Australia decided to recall the two star players, while four more players will be flying 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 ‘wicket keeper-batter Josh Phillippe and big-hitter Ben McDermott joining in ahead of the 3rd T20I in Guwahati.
New South Wales’s Ben Dwarshuis and spinner Chris Green will join the squad in Raipur ahead of the fourth match.
Updated Australia 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 coming into this series was to have a look at Steve (Smith) up the top and we’ve had a chance to do that now,” Australia’s stand-in head coach Andre Borovec said after the second match of the series.
“We’ve been extremely happy with the intent that he’s shown with the bat, (I) couldn’t fault it actually.”
Australia are scheduled to play a total of 10 T20 internationals before next year’s T20 World Cup in the USA and 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Australia T20 squad: Matthew Wade (c), Aaron Hardie, Jason Behrendorff, Sean Abbott (withdrawn), Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Chris Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (withdrawn), Glenn Maxwell (withdrawn), Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Steve Smith (withdrawn), Marcus Stoinis (withdrawn), Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa (withdrawn)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)
