A pectoral injury has ruled out pace spearhead Mitchell Starc of the tour of India as Australia announced their squads for the ODI and T20I series.
Starc sustained the injury on the final day of the second Test against Sri Lanka and will now miss the five scheduled ODIs and two T20s against the Indians.
“Unfortunately, scans have revealed that Mitchell Starc sustained a substantial tear to his left pec muscle while bowling on the final day of the Test match in Canberra,” Australia national selector Trevor Hohns was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“This means he will be unavailable for the tour of India, but we will instead target a return to play for the ODI Series against Pakistan in the UAE in March.”
While Starc misses out through injury, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh along with pacers Billy Stanlake and Peter Siddle have been dropped from Australia’s limited-over squads.
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh has been dropped from the side.
“Peter Siddle and Mitch Marsh are unfortunate to miss out, but our message throughout the summer remains true, with such a big schedule ahead opportunities may well present themselves,” Hohns explained.
In place of Siddle and Starc, Australia have handed recalls to Kane Richardson and Nathan Coulter-Nile while Ashton Turner has come in for Mitch Marsh.
Despite his poor form of late, Aaron Finch continues to lead the Australia squad in both the ODI and T20 formats.
Australia’s limited-overs tour of India will begin with the T20 clashes with the first of them slated to take place on February 24 at Visakhapatnam.
AUSTRALIA 15-MAN SQUAD FOR INDIA TOUR
Aaron Finch (c), Pat Cummins, Alex Carey (wk), Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Adam Zampa.
