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Australia pacer Kane Richardson has been ruled out of the five-match ODI series against Sri Lanka with an injury. The right-arm quick has been ruled out with a “fairly severe hamstring injury” which he sustained during the third and final T20I played a couple of days ago, confirmed a Cricket Australia spokesperson. Richardson will now fly back to Australia for rehabilitation.
Richardson was added as a cover for injured Mitchell Starc who himself suffered an injury after playing the first T20I against Sri Lanka. Left-armer Starc required six stitches on the index finger of his bowling arm. Apart from Starc, Australia all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is also nursing a calf strain. Both these players are expected to be available for the 3rd ODI on Sunday as confirmed by captain Aaron Finch in the presser. Meanwhile, for Kane Richardson, Scott Boland has been added as a cover to the squad.
The Australian captain also revealed that Kane Richardson played with a tendon injury during their third T20I defeat on Saturday. The paceman had suffered the injury in the warm-up but the Aussies did not realize the severity of it until he went for scans on Sunday. He has flown home and is expected to be sidelined for six weeks. "I wasn’t aware of (the injury) during the game, so that was pretty big of him to get through a T20 game of that intensity," Finch said of Richardson.
Australia name Playing XI for 1st ODI
While Richardson was ruled out, Mitchell Swepson missed out on making it to the playing XI for the 1st ODI. Jhye Richardson got a nod ahead of Swepson for the 1st ODI. Nathan Ellis, Aston Agar and Riley Meredith were all considered but were ultimately not deemed fit for the series, Finch informed.
Australia's first ODI 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
