Cricket Australia Is Concerned, That The Big-Name Quartet Of Steve Smith:

Cricket Australia is worried that, without having played a first-class match in at least 11 months, the big-name quartet of Steve Smith, David Warner, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood look set to head into the blockbuster Border-Gavaskar test series.

National selector Trevor Hohns said in addressing the media today that it was “more than possible” that those four players would be absent from the Australia A matches leading into the four-Test series, which were presented as their only prior red-or-pink-ball cricket opportunities.

Spinner Nathan Lyon is going to have different problems, he hasn’t played a lot of cricket in the last 8 months and he’s not being included in the ODI / T20 squad now-he’s going to venture out directly against India in the test matches.

Hohns did say however that Smith, Warner, Cummins and Hazlewood will begin “preparing for red-ball cricket” upon their returns to Australia from the Indian Premier League, with the possibility for those players to be rested from one or multiple matches of the white-ball series against India (November 27 – December 8) as selectors aim to “do whatever we can to get the best out of them for the Test

“We’re going to talk about that kind of thing with our boys, obviously, but (Smith, Warner, Cummins and Hazlewood) are potentially all-format boys, so once they come back from the IPL and get through their quarantine, it’s probably going to be wise for them to start training for red-ball cricket,” Hohns said.

The international schedule is dynamic in a summer unlike any other. The second and third T20Is in Australia clash with the first Australia A v India tour match (6-8 December), while Hohns did not rule out any members of what he expects to be a 16-18 man test squad playing in Drummoyne ‘s three-day red-ball match.

India Tour of Australia 2020-21 : Australia Squad Announced

Australia ODI & T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey , Pat Cummins (vc), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Indian Team For The Tour Of Australia:

India ODI squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

India T20I squad: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (wicketkeeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy

India Test squad: Virat Kohli (c), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Rishabh Pant (w), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Siraj

India Tour of Australia : Dettol ODI Series v India:

First T20: December 4, Manuka Oval, 7.10pm AEDT

Second T20: December 6, SCG, 7.10pm AEDT

Third T20: December 8, SCG, 7.10pm AEDT

Tour Matches:

Australia A v India A, December 6-8, Drummoyne Oval

Australia A v Indians, December 11-13, SCG (day-night)

Vodafone Test Series v India:

First Test: December 17-21, Adelaide Oval, 3pm AEDT (day-night)

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Third Test: January 7-11, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Fourth Test: January 15-19, Gabba, 11am AEDT