Top 8 Australian players expected to miss West Indies, Bangladesh tours

The Australian cricket team has a heavy schedule ahead of the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021. The Australians are going to tour West Indies and Bangladesh for the ODI and T20I matches. With these two away tours and the bio-bubble environment, around eight Australian players might opt out of the tour. According to sources, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson, and Riley Meredith are the players who are likely to miss the upcoming series against Bangladesh and West Indies. Considering there is no news as to why these players might pull out, mental health could be the primary reason.

Australia added six new players to the preliminary squad

After the suspension of the 14th season of the Indian Premier League, the Australian players faced a lot of difficulties. The entire Australian contingent comprising of players, commentators, and umpires had to take a halt in the Maldives. According to a report, Cricket Australia selection chief Trevor Hohns had a talk with all the 23 players of the preliminary squad. The coach had discussed bio-bubble fatigue and mental wellbeing with the players. 

Considering a few players are going to miss the tour, CA decided to rope in other players as replacements. 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. The two newly-added players McDermott and Christian, are presently playing for Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, respectively. Both the players will head back to Australia from the UK this week to complete the mandatory two-week quarantine period. The final Australia squad is going to depart for the Caribbean in late June.

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's preliminary squad

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Pat Cummins, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

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