Australia skipper Aaron Finch has announced the playing XI a day before the first ODI against Sri Lanka. The game will be played in Pallekele on June 14. Ahead of the series, pacer Kane Richardson has been ruled out due to a hamstring injury. Richardson was injured before the third T20I against the Lankan Lions. The right-arm pacer will return home and is expected to be out of the game for six weeks.
The team is already dealing with Mitchell Starc’s finger and he too has been ruled out for the first two ODIs. Add to that, all-rounder, Mitchell Marsh has picked up a calf injury. The team only has four frontline bowling options in the form of Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, and Josh Hazlewood. The fifth and sixth bowling options in the team are Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.
Notably, Cummins is playing his first ODI game since 2020 when India toured Australia for all-format series. Travis Head, who played in the place of David Warner in the last series against Pakistan in April this year, has missed out. Another notable thing in the playing XI is the non-inclusion of leggie Mitchell Swepson. They have gone with one left-arm spinner in the form of Ashton Agar.
Talking about the batting department, they have the familiar faces in the form of skipper Aaron Finch, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, and Alex Carey. The likes of Agar, Cummins, and Hazlewood deepens the batting unit. The team is the front-runner to win the first game of the series as they have gone with first-choice players except for the injured players.
It will be interesting how the team does in the first ODI which has a scarcity of bowling resources.
Australia playing XI
Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Jhye Richardson, Josh Hazlewood
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