IND vs AUS Test: Cricket Australia SHOOTS itself in FOOT, Big stars to MISS BBL 2023 Challenger & Final as Australian Test Team boards flight to India on Jan 31, Follow LIVE Updates

IND vs AUS Test: BBL 2023 FINAL – Cricket Australia is in a fix. Australia’s Test team players will miss the BBL Challenger and Final. The reason? Border Gavaskar Trophy. The scheduling of BBL has been such that the Challenger and the Final will take place on February 2 & 4, 3 days after the team departs for India. Hence, most of the players including Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar. Australian Cricket Team boards the flight to India on January 31. Follow India vs Australia LIVE Updates with InsideSport.IN

Australia Test stars who will miss BBL –

• Steve Smith
• Nathan Lyon
• Ashton Agar
• Lance Morris
• Usman Khawaja (If Brisbane Heat qualify)
• Matt Renshaw (If Brisbane Heat qualify)
• Marnus Labuschagne (If Brisbane Heat qualify)
• Mitchell Swepson (If Brisbane Heat qualify)

IND vs AUS Test: Cricket Australia SHOOTS itself in FOOT, Big stars to MISS BBL 2023 Challenger & Final as Australian Test Team boards flight to India on Jan 31, Follow LIVE Updates 

With Perth Scorchers already in the final, Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon and Ashton Agar besides Lance Morris are guaranteed to miss the BBL 2023 Final. The likes of Usman Khawaja, Mat Renshaw, Marnus Labuschagne and Micthell Swepson could also miss the final if Brisbane Heat qualify. The Test series in India is set to get underway from  February 9, while the BBL 2023 Challenger & Final will be played on February 2 & 4th.

Former Australian cricketer Geoff Lawson has questioned the timing of BBL finals and Australia’s tour of India. In his column in the Sydney Morning Herald, Lawson wrote, “What remains a mystery is the timing of the BBL finals and the Australian team’s departure for India. The team are scheduled to leave on Tuesday, with the Nagpur Test on February 9.”

An 18-player Test squad has been assembled for the Qantas Tour of India in February and March.

Congratulations to everyone selected! pic.twitter.com/3fmCci4d9b

— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) January 11, 2023

“You might think that within the corridors of Cricket Australia, the BBL department would have been in conversation with the high-performance people to make sure that a majority of players would be available for the Big Bash final on February 4  or how about cramming the play-offs into a week and staggering the national team’s departure for India as they complete their BBL commitments?”

No Pre-Tour camp: Furthermore, Cricket Australia has been forced to cancel spinners’ ‘familiarisation camp’ due to the unavailability of players. Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Swepon both are in BBL.

Lawson further wrote, “ The ideal preparation may have been a couple of tough Sheffield Shield matches in the dust and spin, preferably at the SCG battling turn, uneven bounce and reverse swing, but that is old school from a time when the best preparation for a five-day game was a four-day one”.

IND vs AUS Test: Cricket Australia SHOOTS itself in FOOT, Big stars to MISS BBL 2023 Challenger & Final as Australian Test Team boards flight to India on Jan 31, Follow LIVE Updates 

IND vs AUS Test: Australia Test squad for India tour

Australia has named a four spinner led Test squad for the India tour. Todd Murphy received a call-up for the India tour, while Mitchell Swepson was preferred over Adam Zampa. Ashton Agar is the other member of the spin department led by Nathan Lyon.

All-rounder Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell are the two big names who will not be touring India for Test. Marsh continues to remain sidelined after undergoing surgery late last year on a long-standing ankle injury. Maxwell on the other hand had no firm return date from the horror broken leg injury he suffered in November last year. However, he is now slated to join the team for the ODI series.

Instead, Australia will have a four-day camp in Bengaluru from February 2 before flying to Nagpur of the 1st Test.

Australia Test squad for tour of India: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

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