Australia hope for Billy Stanlake's recovery before England tour

Billy Stanlake has been a part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. He played four games in which he managed to pick five wickets at an economy of 8.12 runs per over. He cranked up a fair amount of pace with the leather and also hit the winning strokes against the Mumbai Indians (MI) off Ben Cutting in Hyderabad.

However, during the SRH game against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at the PCA Stadium in Mohali on Sunday, the tall and lanky fast-bowler, injured his pinky finger. Subsequently, he was ruled out of the remaining matches in the tournament. In their next game against Mumbai, Mohammad Nabi, the Afghan all-rounder, replaced him in the eleven.

CA optimistic about Billy Stanlake

Despite the injury, Cricket Australia is confident that the 23-year old pacer would recover before their tour of England in June though it hasn’t yet been learned about the duration of time he would be out of action. Stanlake has played six T20Is and a couple of ODIs thus far in his career. He made his ODI debut way back in January 2017 when Pakistan toured the nation and played his last game in that series itself.

Nevertheless, he has been a part of the T20 side which played the triangular series against England and New Zealand in February. The Australian team are scheduled to travel England for five ODIs and a one-off T20I after the conclusion of the IPL. This will also be their first series following the infamous ball-tampering saga, which has ripped their cricket apart a month ago.

The Kangaroos won’t have the services of the likes of David Warner and Steve Smith, who were handed a one-year ban their cricket board. Meanwhile, the first of the five ODIs will be played at the Kennington Oval in London, followed by Cardiff, Nottingham, Chester-le-Street and Manchester. The only T20I will be staged in Birmingham following the ODI series.

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