After an arduous summer toiling on mostly flat pitches, Josh Hazlewood has been left out of Australia’s one-day squad for their series against India.
Australia’s 14-man squad for the three-match series was announced on Friday with Test quicks Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins all rested.
Australia take on India in the first match at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday, having comprehensively lost their Test series to the visitors at the completion of the fourth Test on Monday.
It has been a tough summer for St George paceman Hazlewood.
The Australia Test vice-captain was asked to bowl 35 overs in the fourth Test in Sydney with just three days break from the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne where he bowled 42 overs.
Hazlewood, who turns 28 tomorrow, has bowled 152 overs all up this summer. He took 13 wickets at an average of 30.61, going for just over two-and-a-half runs per over.
National selector Trevor Hohns said Hazlewood and his fellow quicks would be rested ahead of the two-Test series against Sri Lanka starting on January 24.
“After a hefty workload in the Indian series to date, it has been decided not to select Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in this squad to allow them to freshen up for the Test series against Sri Lanka,” he said.
“Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Peter Siddle and Billy Stanlake fill the fast bowling spots in this squad.”
Hohns said Australia’s recent disappointing performances in one-day cricket and upcoming World Cup in England in May had led to the national selection panel going in a different direction with a number of selections.
“Along with team coaches [we] have reviewed our performances across this format and we’ve identified a number of key areas that we feel we need to improve in order to help put this team in the best possible position to turn this period around,” he said.
“With this in mind and the World Cup looming, we’ve selected players we feel provide us with the flexibility to play a variety of roles at different stages of a match.
“The upcoming three-match series against India and the ODI tours of India and the UAE are important windows to put this into practice and to build a squad to help defend our World Cup title.”
Aaron Finch will captain the squad, with Test spinner Nathan Lyon included alongside Adam Zampa as spinning options.
Usman Khawaja, Peter Handscomb and Mitch Marsh have been recalled while Travis Head, Darcy Short, Ashton Agar and Chris Lynn have been dropped.