Australia consider sending some players home ahead of final India Tests

Australia will consider sending more players home from India as they look to downsize their squad ahead of the final two Tests.

Experienced quick Josh Hazlewood has already left the 18-man squad and flown back to Sydney after battling to overcome a persistent achilles injury.

The 32-year-old has played just three of Australia’s last 16 Tests due to niggling injury issues over the past two years.

Captain Pat Cummins flew home after Australia’s six-wicket loss in Delhi on Sunday because of a serious family illness, but is expected to return for the third Test in Indore, starting on 1 March.

Bowling allrounder Ashton Agar and out-of-form batter Matt Renshaw will possibly leave the Australian camp if the hierarchy decide they are definitively not in their plans for the third and fourth Tests.

The big decision will be on David Warner, with the veteran opener having suffered a concussion and a fractured elbow during the Delhi Test.

Australia will make an announcement about any further squad changes on Wednesday.

“We’re working through that so it won’t be form as such but there’s cricket going on back home,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald said.

“With a few players now becoming fit and available, are we carrying too many?

“We’ve got to be clear on what we want to achieve in the next two Test matches in terms of the structure of the team.

“There’s an opportunity for players to be playing cricket back home and we value that.

“It won’t be form related, it’d be more we want our players playing where they can be and not just being carried around in kit bags, in particular when there’s cricket going on back home.”

Australia have more than a week to piece together how a tour that started with so much promise quickly descended into a