With fast bowlers Lance Morris and Jhye Richardson, Australia’s selectors are trying to make sure they can move past injury issues by looking at the long term.
Morris, the Western Australian fast who played in the Test squad and made his ODI debut against the West Indies last season, is undergoing further rehabilitation after suffering a stress fracture to his back that kept him out of action throughout the winter. It is a recurrence of what transpired following his exclusion from the Ashes trip in 2022–2023 season.
Morris had previously missed his summer due to a side injury sustained in his second ODI match. His post-season scans revealed a hot area in his back, therefore he was not considered for the Scotland and England trip, even though he was scheduled to play for the Seattle Orcas in Major League Cricket.
George Bailey, the national selector, stated that Lance is still getting used to playing again and healing from his back stress fracture. It’s great to hear that he’s making good progress and feeling well. He’s beginning to express a desire for cricket and believes he will have plenty of opportunities to play this summer, so it will be fantastic to have him back.
“Felt a little bit like with him, that we wanted to set him up for success in the long term as opposed to pushing that too early then potentially risking what we think is something that could be really exciting across this summer and beyond.”
After yet another interrupted domestic season in which he sustained a side strain during the BBL after being called up to the ODI team, Richardson—who Bailey describes as “fit and firing”—made one appearance for the Delhi Capitals in the 2024 Indian Premier League. Against Sri Lanka in the middle of 2022, he made his Australian debut.
Earlier this year, Cricket Australia awarded central contracts to both Morris and Richardson.
Bailey remarked, “Jhye is in a similar boat.” “He’s back hunting for match opportunities and firing right now. I believe he will get more opportunities over the summer. I believe that for both of them—him and Morris—the goal is to stay in shape throughout the season in order to play as much cricket as possible. There will be some local and hopefully some foreign chances, as well as opportunities in Australia. chances, then I believe we position them for long-term success.”
The Test pace attack hasn’t changed much recently because to the longevity of Australia’s major three quicks, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins, with the exception of Scott Boland filling in when one of them is injured. In the past nine months, they have also frequently participated in the ODI and T20 World Cups, albeit they have been rotated a bit more outside of those competitions.
In order to focus on fitness ahead of the home summer game, Cummins will miss the whole UK trip. Hazlewood is in both teams, but Starc will miss the T20Is before making a comeback for the ODIs. Quicks that are emerging Nathan Ellis, Xavier Bartlett, and Spencer Johnson are in the T20I group and should get more opportunities. Along with Ellis, Hazlewood, and Starc in the 50-over team is Sean Abbott, who participated in just one match during the ODI World Cup.
It will probably be debatable if Starc, Hazlewood, and Cummins can play through the entire five-Test series against India later this year, but the selectors have taken that burden into consideration while making their plans.
“As far as the fast bowling group goes, think we’ve got a pretty exciting bunch there that we haven’t had the opportunity to get a lot of games into across the formats predominantly because we’ve had a highly successful and robust senior group of fast bowlers,” Bailey stated.
“Clearly some of the decisions made around this series is around priortising and getting guys right for what will be a really big summer and for some guys this is an opportunity to get a little bit more work into what they are going to need to be ready for that.”
All-arounder Will Sutherland of Victoria and the Melbourne Renegades was not included in the most recent teams due to a second stress fracture to his back that occurred late in the previous season. In February, he had also played his first ODI match against the West Indies.
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