Australia announces 18-member squad for West Indies and Bangladesh tours

Cricket Australia has announced an 18-member team for the forthcoming West Indies and Bangladesh tours. The Australian cricket team is set to play against West Indies and Bangladesh for a total of 10 T20I games and three ODIs. However, the team won't be able to field their best Playing XI in both tours as seven big names have opted out.

Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson, and Kane Richardson are the players who are going to miss the upcoming series against Bangladesh and West Indies. All these players aren't part of Australia's squad for various reasons. Australian star batsman Steve Smith is out because of an elbow injury.

Aaron Finch to lead the second-stringed Australian team against West Indies

Earlier, the Australian cricket board had announced a 29-man preliminary squad for the tour of the West Indies. However, the pulling out of the regular players has left Australia with a second-stringed team. Thus, many inexperienced Australian players will play against Kieron Pollard and the team. On June 16 (Wednesday), the Australia selection committee confirmed a final 18-member squad for the white-ball tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh.

Considering a few players are going to miss the tour, CA decided to rope in other players as a replacement. They have added Ben McDermott, Dan Christian, Cameron Green, Ashton Turner, Wes Agar, and Nathan Ellis. However, CA stated that the confirmation of the tours is subject to agreement on bio-security arrangements and relevant government approvals. 

Aaron Finch is going to lead the second-stringed Australian team. At the same time, senior players like Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, and Josh Hazlewood will also have to perform well. Talking about the young players, Josh Philippe, Riley Meredith, and Wes Agar would be determined to shine in the national colors and cement their place in the team.

Australia is going to play five T20Is and three ODIs against West Indies starting from July 10. After that, the entire team will head to Bangladesh to play five more T20I games in August.

Australia squad 

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

Traveling reserves: Nathan Ellis, Tanveer Sangha.

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