SYDNEY: Cricket Australia (CA) chief selector George Bailey on Friday said 25-year-old pacer Jhye Richardson’s struggle to stay fit was the main reason why he was not in the list of 20 centrally contracted men’s players announced on Thursday.
Richardson took a five-wicket haul in the second Ashes Test in Adelaide late last year as Australia took a 2-0 lead before winning the 5-match series 4-0. But Richardson suffered a leg injury and was later ruled out of the rest of the Ashes game.
He was rested for the three-Test series against Pakistan, with CA taking a long-term view. But his exclusion from the list of 20 centrally contracted players came as a big surprise to many, who looked to Richardson as one of their future mainstays.
On Friday, Bailey told cricket.com.au that Richardson was “unfortunate to miss out” on the CA men’s contract, but indicated it was likely that he, Matthew Wade and Kane Richardson would join the tour of Sri Lanka.
Australia will play three T20 Internationals, five ODIs and two Test matches in June-July, their first tour of Sri Lanka since 2016.
Apart from the leg injury sustained during the Adelaide Test, Richardson has been unlucky in the sense that he dislocated his right shoulder and went under the knife while fielding ahead of the ICC World Cup in mid-2019. Then on his way back, he suffered a side strain and missed two Australian first-class cricket seasons.
Bailey said all of those injuries had been considered before he and fellow selector Tony Dodemaid made a final decision on the central contract list.
“Jha, we love his skills across all three formats and we look forward to increasing his availability and continuing to build on his resilience and ability to play a lot more cricket over the next 12 months,” Bailey said.
“And just a little bit with Kane (Richardson), with that T20 World Cup (in Australia next October).
Bailey highlights the difficulty of preparing an exhaustive list of candidates, saying, “If the contract list was 10, the 11th seems unlucky and if it was 25 the 26th seems unlucky.”
“There’s always someone who just remembers. You could say it was unfortunate to miss (Zhy Richardson), I think Matthew Wade is another Kane Richardson in the same boat as well to an extent. They’re all people whose We sincerely hope to play for Australia in the near future. In all likelihood they will all be selected in our next touring party (in Sri Lanka). They are not contracted, but certainly not (as believed) not required Well, his skill sets are all really important. Wade is still the first-choice wicketkeeper in our T20 team, there’s a big build-up coming up in that World Cup.”
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