Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been declared unfit to feature in the upcoming T20I series against Scotland due to a minor calf strain he suffered while training last week. While the injury is not major, Australian selectors have erred on the side of caution in treating Hazlewood’s recovery with care, given the stakes of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India later this year. However, Hazlewood is expected to be fit in time for the T20Is and ODIs against England in September.
Riley Meredith Replaces Hazlewood
Riley Meredith has been called up to the squad for the T20Is against Scotland in Hazlewood’s stead. Meredith is a tall right-arm fast bowler who came into the limelight due to his quick pace and ability to extract more bounce than most fast bowlers. He last represented Australia in 2021, and so far he has played 1 ODI and 5 T20Is. The tall pacer has 8 wickets in T20Is with an average of 23.50. While Meredith is a natural wicket-taker, his tendency sometimes to be a bit expensive makes his game quite unpredictable.
Solid Domestic Form of Meredith
While regularly featuring for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League, Meredith has also had spells in English domestic cricket. Following a recent spell with Somerset, he performed well in the Vitality T20 Blast, where he took 14 wickets at an average of 22.78, and six wickets in three matches during the Royal London One-Day Cup; he proved to be a potent white-ball bowler.
Australia’s Fast Bowling Woes
With Hazlewood out, Australia suffered another blow to its fast bowling, as left-arm pacer Spencer Johnson had already been declared out of the tour of the United Kingdom with an injury. Sean Abbott has been drafted as a replacement for him in the squad.
Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood Key for Border-Gavaskar Trophy
The Australian team was originally getting ready to unleash its three pacemen who are arguably among the world’s best — Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood — during the UK tour. However, Pat Cummins has been rested for the entire tour, and Mitchell Starc found a place only in the ODI series against England.
Upcoming Fixtures
It will kick off with a T20I series against Scotland in Edinburgh on September 4. Following the commitment against Scotland, the Australians will head to England to play three T20Is and five ODIs.
Focus on the Border-Gavaskar Trophy
The Australia management will be hoping to field its full-on pace attack in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy later this year, an important test series against reigning champions India.
Australia squad for Scotland T20Is
Mitchell Marsh (C), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Riley Meredith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
The Sportz Planet Desk,
Atharva Shetye
