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Australia captain Steve Smith backed number three batter Marnus Labuschagne to regain his form and hinted spin-bowling all-rounder Cooper Connolly could make his test debut in the second match against Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Just a couple of weeks before the start of the ICC Champions Trophy, Australia have suffered a big blow as their skipper Pat Cummins is close to being ruled out of the competition. Australia coach Andrew McDonald dropped the bomb on Wednesday, confirming that Cummins hasn't yet resumed the sort of bowling he was expected to. Hence, he is unlikely to regain fitness before the global ICC event starts. In Cummins' absence, one of Travis Head and Steve Smith will be given the responsibility of leading Australia.
MELBOURNE :Australia captain Pat Cummins is all but ruled out of the Champions Trophy while fellow paceman Josh Hazlewood is also a doubt for the ODI tournament, coach Andrew McDonald said on Wednesday.
Ahead of the second Test against Australia at Galle, former Australian captain Tim Paine said that he does not see Lankan Lions coming any close to the visitors on any surface. The second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia will take place at Galle from February 6 onwards. With Australia, already having booked a spot in the ICC World Test Championship (WTC), leading 1-0, Sri Lanka would like to bow out of their most successful WTC campaign on a high.
Young opening batter Sam Konstas is leaving Australia's tour of Sri Lanka and flying back home to play in New South Wales' next Sheffield Shield game against Queensland at the Gabba. The Australian media have reported that the decision to send back Konstas was taken after it became clear that the 19-year-old batter would not be considered for selection in the second Test against Sri Lanka. Konstas, who made headlines with his unorthodox shots on debut against a Jasprit Bumrah-led Indian pace bowling attack in Melbourne last December, returned to hotel after Australia's training session on Tuesday and started packing his bag for his flight back home.
Australian spinner Nathan Lyon feels that despite their side's success over recent years, there are still important milestones to be reached before they can be considered a truly great team. Ahead of the second Test against Sri Lanka taking place in Colombo on Wednesday, Lyon stated that he believes that the current lot is still a long way from achieving "greatness" as a Test team. Despite Australia's outstanding summer of red-ball cricket, where they dominated India at home to reclaim the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade and secured their biggest-ever win in the subcontinent with an innings and 242-run victory over Sri Lanka in Galle-Lyon still holds the belief that the team is far from being considered up there.
Star batter Travis Head was named the winner of the prestigious Allan Border Medal for the top Australian men's cricketer, while young all-rounder Annabel Sutherland was awarded the Belinda Clark Medal at the Australian Cricket Awards held here on Monday. Head, who had an outstanding year across all three formats with 1,427 runs since the start of the polling period, received 208 votes to secure the top honour, surpassing Josh Hazlewood (158 votes) and Pat Cummins (147 votes).
Australia's stand-in captain Steve Smith hailed his side's resounding innings and 242-run victory over Sri Lanka in Galle on Saturday as "near flawless" after the visitors retained the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.