Australia squad for West Indies tour: Steve Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins and other Test specialists return to 23-man squad

Australia squad for West Indies tour: Australia have named a strong 23-member preliminary squad for the upcoming tour of West Indies.

In Steve Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey and Mitchell Swepson, as many as eight Test specialists have returned to the white-ball squad as the Australian selectors have announced a 23-member squad for the upcoming tour of West Indies.

Having last toured New Zealand for a five-match T20I series earlier this year, Australia hadn’t included the aforementioned names as they were slated to tour South Africa for a three-match Test series (which was eventually postponed due to COVID-19).

It was only last week that Cricket West Indies had announced hosting five T20Is and three ODIs against Australia as part of their grand summer schedule which also includes bilateral series against South Africa and Pakistan.

Australia squad for West Indies tour

As far as players who had last played in white-ball formats for Australia, the likes of Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Ben McDermott, Ashton Turner and Daniel Sams have been left out due to various reasons.

The addition of leg-spinner Swepson means that Australia now have three wrist-spinners in the squad namely Adam Zampa, Swepson and Tanveer Sangha in addition to all-rounder Ashton Agar.

ALSO READ: Why is Marnus Labuschagne not part of Australia’s squad for West Indies tour?

“Mitch Swepson has been in exceptional form across all three forms of the game. His Big Bash performances with the Heat have been superb, as was his bowling for Queensland.

“Tanveer Sanga was extremely impressive for the Sydney Thunder and we regard him very highly. While he didn’t play in New Zealand it was a great opportunity for a young bowler to be around the group. Along with the class of Adam and Ashton we are very fortunate to have four highly capable spinners on this list,” National Selector Trevor Hohns said in a statement regarding including four spinners in the squad.

Australia’s squad for tour of West Indies: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Tanveer Sangh, D’Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

It is worth mentioning that this is a preliminary squad and that there’s a possibility of reducing the number of players to 18 before boarding the flight to West Indies.

About the author

Dixit Bhargav

Born and brought up in Pathankot, Dixit Bhargav is an engineering and sports management graduate who works as a Cricket Editor at The SportsRush. Having written more than 10,000 articles across more than five years at TSR, his first cricketing memory dates back to 2002 when former India captain Sourav Ganguly had waved his jersey at the historic Lord’s balcony. What followed for an 8-year-old was an instant adulation for both Ganguly and the sport. The optimist in him is waiting for the day when Punjab Kings will win their maiden Indian Premier League title. When not watching cricket, he is mostly found in a cinema hall watching a Punjabi movie.

Read More