Sydney: Cricket Australia (CA) chief selector George Bailey stated on Friday that 25-year-old tempo bowler Jhye Richardson’s struggles to stay match was the principle cause why he was not within the listing of 20 centrally contracted males’s gamers introduced on Thursday.
Richardson had headlined the second Ashes Test at Adelaide late final 12 months, grabbing a five-wicket haul as Australia went on to take a 2-0 lead, earlier than clinching the five-match collection 4-0. But Richardson suffered a leg harm and subsequently lacking the remainder of the Ashes video games.
He was rested for the three-Test collection in opposition to Pakistan, with CA taking a long-term view. But his exclusion from the listing of 20 centrally contracted gamers got here as an enormous shock to many, who had been Richardson as one of many mainstays for the longer term.
On Friday, Bailey informed cricket.com.au that Richardson was “unlucky to overlook” out on a CA men’s contract, but indicated it was likely the he, Matthew Wade and Kane Richardson would feature in the Sri Lanka tour.
Australia will play three T20Is, five ODIs and two Tests in June-July, their first tour of Sri Lanka since 2016.
Besides the leg injury suffered during the Adelaide Test, Richardson has been unlucky in the sense that he dislocated his right shoulder while fielding before the ICC World Cup in mid-2019 and went under the knife. Then on a comeback trail, he suffered a side strain and missed two Australian first-class cricket seasons.
Bailey said that all those injuries were considered before he and fellow selector Tony Dodemaide took a final call on the central contract list.
“Jhye, we like his skills set across all three formats and we’re just looking forward to his availability increasing and continuing to build his resilience and ability to play a lot more cricket over the next 12 months,” stated Bailey.
“And a bit of bit the identical with Kane (Richardson), with that T20 World Cup developing (in Australia subsequent October).
“If the contract listing was 10, then the eleventh seems to be unfortunate and if it was 25 then the twenty sixth seems to be unfortunate,” Bailey added highlighting the difficulty of preparing an extensive list of candidates.
“There’s always someone who just misses. You could say (Jhye Richardson) was unfortunate to miss, I think Matthew Wade’s another one in the same boat and Kane Richardson to an extent as well. They’re all guys we fully expect will play for Australia in the near future. In all likelihood they’ll all be picked in our next touring party (to Sri Lanka). They’re not contracted, but certainly not (deemed as) not required, their skills sets are all really important. Wade is still first-choice wicketkeeper in our T20 team, with a big build-up coming to that World Cup.”
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