Australian wicketkeeper-batter Peter Handscomb is now a doubtful for his first Test tour in four years as scans have confirmed that he has sustained a hip injury. Notably, Handscomb was hurt on Tuesday when he was playing a club cricket match in Victoria. While going for the pull shot, he hurt himself and even though he continued batting, three balls later he fell to the ground with pain after connecting a pull stroke which went all the way for a maximum.
Scans have now revealed a soft-tissue damage in his right hip and even though officials have hoped that he should recover in time to leave with the Australian team for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India, it will be a matter of touch and go.
Peter Handscomb not the only injury concern for Australia
The 31-year-old is not the only Aussie cricketer who is nursing an injury at the moment as they already have the likes of Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green out with injuries.
Left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc has already been ruled out of the first Test in Nagpur on February 9 and won't be flying to India by the end of this month. On the other hand, Green, it is being said, can play in the series opener.
After picking Handscomb in the Australian squad, national selector George Bailey had said that the 31-year-old deserves his place in the team
"He deserves his place back in the squad," national selector George Bailey stated as per an official Cricket Australia release.
"His domestic form has been strong recently and Pete has proven he can perform at Test level. His experience against spin on the subcontinent is valuable and he is also an exceptionally good close-to-the-wicket catcher," he added.
Australia Test squad for tour of India: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.