David Warner, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Glenn Maxwell won’t feature in the white-ball leg of Australia’s historic tour of Pakistan.
Cricket Australia on Tuesday (February 22) granted a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) to some of its centrally-contracted players to participate in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 season from April 6. As a result, Team Australia will be without the services of David Warner, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Glenn Maxwell in their upcoming white-ball series against Pakistan.
Australia, who are set to tour Pakistan for the first time since 1998, is slated to play the home side in a three-match Test series starting from March 4 till March 25. The limited over series will start from March 29 to April 5. With the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 slated to start in March-end, it is expected that the white-ball series against Pakistan will overlap.
“Yes, we have granted NoCs to our players to be available for their franchises from April 6 in the IPL. The players can be available only after the Pakistan tour concludes,” the sources were quoted as saying by My Khel.
Meanwhile, Australia on Monday announced their ODI and T20I squad taking on the home side in three ODIs and one T20I match. Skipper Aaron Finch will have the responsibility to provide a good start at the top along with possible opener Ben McDermott. The middle-order will comprise of Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh and Steve Smith. Australia will be hoping for a strong finish from wicketkeeper Alex Carey, Cameron Green and Marcus Stoinis.
We are confident that our squad can compete successfully: National selector George Bailey
National selector George Bailey in a statement said, “We have picked a talented and versatile squad with a number of challenges to juggle, including the tour structure of predominantly 50 over games, management of several multi-format players in the medium to long term; and our need to build experience and depth in preparation for two short-form World Cups within the next 18 months.”
“We’re confident the squad can both compete successfully on this tour and continue our progress towards those crucial tournaments,” he added.
Australia’s ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
