Cricket Australia names Tim Paine, Aaron Finch as captains, Cummins and Starc ruled out

Tim Paine was named as the ODI captain for the upcoming series by Cricket Australia as a temporary fill-in till they settle on a fixed leader for the one-day internationals in due course Aaron Finch would be leading the T20 side. He has been the captain for the shortest format before and has led for 9 matches.

For the ODI matches, Shaun Marsh has been called back to the squad, and so was Alex Carey. He had played one ODI against England in Paine’s absence. A good show in the Big Bash League and the T20I tri-series against New Zealand and India opened up the ODI doors for D’Arcy Short. Nathan Lyon has been recalled too, to give him a chance to push for the World Cup team. He is also one of Australia’s best bet in off-spin.

“Nathan is our number one off-spinner and has excelled with the red ball, however, he is not new to white ball cricket and deserves his chance to push for World Cup selection,” said Chief Selector Trevor Hohns. “England potentially has a number of left-handers in their side and we look forward to seeing what he can produce with the white-ball in English conditions.”

Among the misses, there are Chris Lynn, Usman Khawaja and Cameron White, as well as Adam Zampa, who has not received a central contract by CA yet. Other big names are Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, both of whom are recovering from injuries. They missed out the Indian Premier League as well.

They both need a good period of rehab to recover from their respective bone stress injuries and will most probably be back in the team in the Pakistan series in UAE, but not earlier.

Mitchell Starc and Pat Cumins take time to recover from injuries

“Mitchell is going to undertake a prolonged rehabilitation period for his tibial bone stress injury and we are aiming for a return to play for the Pakistan Test Series in the UAE,” said CA physiotherapist David Beakley.

“Pat is still recovering from a lumbar bone stress injury, the good news is that it has not progressed to a fracture but he still requires a period of rehabilitation with an aim for him to return to play for the Pakistan Test series along with Starc.”

In the T20s, Alex Carey has been named the deputy of Aaron Finch. He has also been handed a central contract by CA and is in contention to become the main wicketkeeper-batsman if Paine is dropped from the ODIs to concentrate more on his test captaincy. Finch will be leading the team for a single T20I against England, and a tri-series in Zimbabwe.

Among the surprise inclusions in the T20 format, Mitchell Swepson is one, who is yet to get his international debut. The other one is Nic Maddison. He was a part of the team that toured India last year, but he was recently left out of New South Wales’ central contract because of his poor form in domestic cricket.

Moving on from the ball tampering scandal and the Sandpaper Gate, Australia will be playing a five-match ODI series and one T20 International against England in June. After that, they will be travelling to Zimbabwe for a T20 tri-series, where they will be joined by Pakistan as the third team.

Here are the squads:

Australian ODI squad: Tim Paine (C), Aaron Finch (VC), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Josh Hazelwood, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye.

Australian T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (VC), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth.

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