Australian pacer Jhye Richardson could reportedly be a late contender to feature in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, following a potential return to red-ball cricket this month.
Australia have named a 13-man squad for the first Test against India which begins on November 22 in Perth. The squad includes a maiden call-up for Nathan McSweeney, while Josh Inglis, who is uncapped at Test level, is also included.
Australia's three main pace bowlers – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood – have all been included, as well as Scott Boland. But with the first-choice trio likely to be rested for a Test or two to manage their workload, Australia will potentially need to have a couple of other seamers to call upon later on.
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The gaps between the five Tests are as follows – nine days, three days, seven days and three days. The smaller gaps might possibly cause Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood to be cautious about playing, and are before the matches in Brisbane and in Sydney.
Michael Neser has been one of the standout pacer bowlers in domestic cricket for more than a few seasons now, and was expected to be a potential understudy for the trio. He was also part of the Australia A side that took on India A earlier this month, but suffered a hamstring injury in the second match, which has put his participation in any cricket in doubt for a few weeks at least.
Against this backdrop, there is a potential return to the Test team opening up for Jhye Richardson. Richardson has had a career heavily interrupted by injury so far, with the last two years alone reading like a horror story.
