David Warner, Pat Cummins and Glenn Maxwell are among six players to have opted out of Australia’s tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh, while Steven Smith will miss the trips because of an elbow injury.
Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson and Marcus Stoinis are the others to make themselves unavailable for the upcoming tours because of a variety of personal reasons, following their time at the IPL and the difficult journey home when the tournament was postponed indefinitely. All-rounder Daniel Sams had previously put himself out of contention.
Wes Agar, the South Australia and Adelaide Strikers pace bowler, has earned his first international call-up as the one uncapped player in the 18-strong squad. Nathan Ellis, the Tasmania quick, and leg-spinner Tanveer Sangha will travel as reserves.
Dan Christian and Ben McDermott, who both recently aborted their county deals when added to the preliminary squad, have been recalled. Christian last played for Australia in 2017.
From the 29 names in the preliminary squad, D’Arcy Short, who is playing for Hampshire in the T20 Blast, and Cameron Green have not been included.
Jason Behrendorff, Moises Henriques, Riley Meredith, Andrew Tye and Adam Zampa, who were also at the IPL, have made themselves available for the tour. Tye and Zampa, along with Kane Richardson, left the tournament early before Australia’s borders shut to arrivals from India, which forced the remaining players to travel home after a stay in Maldives.
Australia are boosted by the return of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood to the white-ball set-up after the two were among those unavailable for the T20I tour of New Zealand as they had been selected for the Test series in South Africa, which was subsequently postponed.
With Australia’s international borders likely to remain shut well into next year, the requirement to quarantine for two weeks after tours will continue to impact players for the foreseeable future.
Australia will leave for the Caribbean on June 28 with the tour including five T20Is and three ODIs. They are then due to travel straight to Bangladesh with five T20Is penciled in between August 2 and 10.
Australia squad: Aaron Finch (capt), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Riley Meredith, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa (ESPNCricinfo)
