Ace Australian speedster Mitchell Starc has been roped into the 14-member squad for the final T20I against to be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday. He has been called to replace injured Billy Stanlake who suffered an ankle sprain during the training session ahead of the 2nd T20I in Melbourne which got washed out.
He was earlier replaced by Nathan Coulter-Nile for the game, but, now has been ruled out of the final game in Sydney and has been replaced with Starc.
The 28-year-old last represented his country in an international T20 game in September 2016. While he wasn’t picked for the ongoing series against India, Starc featured for his state team New South Wales in the last round of Sheffield Shield fixtures against Queensland.
Confirming Starc’s inclusion, Australian current skipper in the limited–overs format, Aaron Finch, said, “He [Starc] has got so much experience in the limited-overs games as well and we've seen how dominant he can be when he gets it right with the ball.”
“We'll have a look at the wicket this afternoon and discuss the side but coming straight off a Shield game with an eye on the first Test, his preparations will be really good,” added Finch.
Starc was further expected to miss out the next round of the first class competition in order to prepare for the upcoming 4-match Test series against India starting from December 6. However, those plans have been slightly altered with this late call-up.
With Australia leading the 3-match T20I series 1-0, the last and the deciding game will be played on Sunday at the SCG.
Squad:
Australia: Aaron Finch(c), Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, D Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc
India: Virat Kohli(c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, K Khaleel Ahmed