Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
For Quick Alerts
ALLOW NOTIFICATIONS  
For Daily Alerts
 

India vs Australia | Steve Smith a certainty in Playing 11: Justin Langer

Australia coach Justin Langer confirmed the return of star batsman Steve Smith for the upcoming ODI series against India which gets underway on Friday.

Steve Smith a certainty in Playing 11: Justin Langer

Melbourne, November 25: Australia coach Justin Langer on Wednesday (November 25) confirmed the return of star batsman Steve Smith for the upcoming ODI series against India which gets underway on Friday (November 27).

Smith, who last played an ODI game in March this year, has been going through a lean patch. The right-handed batsman scored 311 runs in the IPL 2020 after entering the showpiece on the back of a disappointing series in England.

He had missed the ODI series against England after suffering a concussion at training. In three T20Is against England in September, Smith scored 31 runs but the Rajasthan Royals skipper has now found some good rhythm ahead of the white ball series and he is really excited about it.

"We'll probably lean that way (picking Smith for Marsh) but we did learn and we've talked about in our foundation for one-day cricket going forward, we really like that extra bowling option," cricket.com.au quoted Langer as saying.

"In England, we had Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell able to get us at least 10 overs. So, we like that combination, the extra allrounder," he added. The coach admitted that selectors are suffering from a 'good headache' finalising the playing XI.

"Obviously Steve will come straight back in and there's some headaches but they're good headaches. There's a lot of talk about selection, they give you a few headaches, but I promise they're really good headaches to have," he added.

If the selectors want to go with the extra all-rounder, the next headache will be making a choice between Moises Henriques and Cameron Green. Langer said the two-seam bowling all-rounders are at different ends of their careers and both the players look good to be in the playing XI.

"Henriques is very, very experienced. He's in great form, deserves his opportunity back in the team on performance. Then you've got Cam Green, the youngster, 21 years old, huge potential," said Langer.

"He's bowled the last two Shield games for Western Australia. I've said publicly if we're going to pick Cameron Green he has to be bowling in one-day cricket specifically, not so much in T20 cricket or Test cricket because we go for a different set-up in those two forms of the game," he added.

Story first published: Wednesday, November 25, 2020, 10:46 [IST]
Other articles published on Nov 25, 2020