It's not even peak summer in India but the visiting Australian men's cricket team is aleady feeling the heat. After going down 0-2 in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Aussies received a huge blow when opener David Warner and pacer Josh Hazlewood were ruled out of the Test series, with two matches still to go. Additionally, captain Pat Cummins had to go back to Australia for a family health emergency. Not to forget, Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc's injury woes continue as there is no update yet from Cricket Australia on their return date. To sum things up, not everything is under control in Australian camp and we are not yet talking about their batters struggling on the Indian pitches against the spinners.
As per a news report in The West Australian, the team management has now decided to let go two players. Matthew Renshaw, who has failed in two back to back Tests, and Ashton Agar will be sent back to Australia. A formal announcement is likely to be made on Wednesday, February 22. Australia coach Andrew McDonald told The West Australian that the decision to release players has been made keeping in mind the domestic season back home and not the form of the players.
"We're working through that so it won’t be form as such but there’s cricket going on back home," said McDonald. "With a few players now becoming fit and available, are we carrying too many? We’ve got to be clear on what we want to achieve in the next two Test matches in terms of the structure of the team," he further said.
Andrew McDonald felt the Aussies "pretty much threw the game away" in Delhi, and also addressed the potential loss of David Warner for the third #INDvAUS Test pic.twitter.com/CQzUOCEVGY
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) February 21, 2023
"It won’t be form related, it’d be more we want our players playing where they can be and not just being carried around in kit bags, in particular when there’s cricket going on back home," McDonald further said.
Australia have spoiled their chances of winning back the Border-Gavaskar Trophy by bringing an unfit squad that had as many as three injued players in form of Green, Starc, Hazlewood. They lost the first Test in Nagpur by an innings and 132 runs while in the the second Test, they were beaten by 6 wickets.
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