Melbourne: Australian pace spearhead Mitchell Starc was Thursday ruled out of the limited overs tour of India due to a pectoral injury while all-rounder Mitchell Marsh was ignored for the two T20s and five ODIs starting, February 24. Senior pacer Josh Hazlewood is also unavailable as he is recovering from a back injury.
Eleven players in the 16-man squad featured in the home series against India last month, when Australia lost 1-2.
Starc suffered the injury, which causes strain in the shoulder, arm and chest, during the final day of the second Test between Sri Lanka in Canberra three days ago.
“Unfortunately, scans have revealed that Mitchell Starc sustained a substantial tear to his left pectoral muscle while bowling on the final day of the Test match in Canberra,” national selector Trevor Hohns said in a statement.
“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,” Hohns added.
Aaron Finch will captain the side on the tour. Senior batsman Shaun Marsh will join the squad later in India due to the birth of his child. He is also recovering from a hamstring injury.
The squad: Aaron Finch (c), Pat Cummins, Alex Carey, 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 and Adam Zampa.
Fixtures
T20s
Date Venue
February 24 Vizag
February 27 Bangalore
ODIs
March 2 Hyderabad
March 5 Nagpur
March 8 Ranchi
March 10 Mohali
March 13 Delhi
PTI