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Australia all-rounder Ashton Agar is set to fly home to represent his domestic side Western Australia after being left out of the first two Tests against India for the Border-Gavaskar trophy.
A regular in Australia's limited overs playing eleven, Agar is expected to join the team for the three-match ODI series that begins on March 17. The 29-year-old will return to play in Western Australia's Shield match against Tasmania next week and will also be available to play in the Marsh Cup. The all-rounder has been out of favours for the Australia Test side, with Todd Murphy making his debut and partnering Nathan Lyon in the first Test in Nagpur. Left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann was preferred over Agar in the second Test in Delhi despite not having been part of the original squad. Kuhnemann flew to India five days before the Delhi Test and was not part of the initial squad that flew to India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Australia selector Tony Dodemaide, who is with the team in India, mentioned that the all-rounder was in close contention to be a part of the playing eleven in both the Tests and has put the hard yards to be a part of the squad. "(Agar) has worked incredibly hard, he's done his absolute best to support the team," Dodemaide told reporters in Delhi. "We acknowledge all the work he's done, he's worked his backside off. In the first Test, it was a very close call (between Murphy, Agar and Swepson) as to what spin structure we went with. The question mark of whether the two off-spinners could go together. We had Matthew Kuhnemann coming in for the second Test - again a very close call with that. We just decided that Matthew's style would be suited to the conditions there," Tony said as quoted by cricket.com.au. The selector mentioned that the all-rounder has not featured in a lot of first-class matches for his domestic side being an all-format player for the national team. "Ronnie (coach Andrew McDonald) has talked about the difficulty of remaining an all-format player in any discipline, spinning equally so. There are very few who can adjust really quickly and who are suited to all three formats. To be fair to Ash he doesn't play a lot of first-class cricket either and that's the nature of the modern game, isn't it? He's continuing to work on that, he's worked really hard on that with the coaches, particularly (assistant coach and former left-arm spinner) Dan Vettori. But right now (returning home) is a logical and constructive way forward for Ash and the team," the Australia selector stated. He is the third player to fly back to Australia after opener David Warner and pacer Josh Hazlewood. Pat Cummins also flew back but is expected to join the team for the third Test in Indore commencing on March 1. (ANI)
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