Australia have made a change to their squad ahead of the West Indies series as uncapped pacer Brendan Doggett has been ruled out of the series due to a hip injury. The Aussies have added uncapped all-rounder Sean Abbott as his replacement for the series, which gets underway on June 25 in Barbados.
Doggett was a travelling reserve in Australia's WTC final squad and was due to be part of the three-match series in the West Indies. His 11 wickets in the Sheffield Shield final for South Australia made him earn a spot as a reserve for the final although the speedster was also part of the squad for the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar series late last year.
Abbott is capped in the other two formats and is yet to win a Test cap. He might get a chance in the West Indies series if Australia decide to manage their quicks and if conditions offer only two pacers.
Steve Smith major doubt for opening Test
Meanwhile, Australia veteran Steve Smith is a major doubt for the opening Test of the series after suffering a compound dislocation of the little finger on his right hand while bottling up a catch of South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma in the second slips in the WTC final.
Smith had left the field immediately following his injury. His wound was stitched and later his finger was placed in a splint. The Aussie star is all likely to miss the series opener against the Windies as the wound is expected to heal in about 15 days although he will have to wear the splint for eight weeks.
Steve Smith opens on his injury
He could play in the second Test if the wound heals as expected and Smith can bat with the splint on his finger. The former skipper had opened up on his injury. "It just split the skin and dislocated it, which made me feel pretty ill at that stage," Smith told the ICC. "I think in a splint for eight weeks now and may be able to play with it in a couple of weeks, so it'll depend on my functionality and what I'm able to do, but it's probably the best result I could have hoped for."
The second and third Tests against the Windies will take place from July 3 and July 13 onwards respectively.
Australia head coach on Smith's potential absence
Meanwhile, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald also spoke on Smith's potential absence from the opening Test. "If Steve wasn't available for the first Test match, that would lend itself to having extra batting coverage," he said. "Because if we lost another player, then we'd be short in terms of what we had on the bench and available."
Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster