Australia

Eyeing Australia’s tour of India early next year, Ashton Agar has started his preparation towards a potential long-awaited Test recall, confident he can shift between formats “quickly”. Agar was a notable inclusion in the Prime Minister’s XI squad to play West Indies in Canberra in a four-day day-night first-class fixture starting on November 23. Back

Finger spinners Ashton Agar and Todd Murphy have been named in the Prime Minister’s XI squad to play West Indies in Canberra as national selectors look to give a range of spinners Australia A opportunities ahead of next year’s tour of India. The PM XI’s match is a four-day day-night first-class fixture starting on November

Australia have Daniel Sams, Jason Behrendorff and Ben Dwarshuis in the wings but none bring quite the same weaponry at their best. Riley Meredith‘s express pace could bring another dimension, but he would need more experience in the conditions to be considered a chance. Jhye Richardson remains a highly skilled bowler but his shoulder issue

Travis Head has returned to Australia’s ODI squad for the series against England and Marcus Harris has been included as the spare batter for the Test matches against West Indies. Following the early exit from the T20 World Cup, a full-strength squad has been named for the three games against England in Adelaide, Sydney and

Matthew Hayden has urged Australia’s selectors to be ruthless as they build towards future World Cups following the team’s early exit for the T20 event on home soil. There is expected to be a significant turnover in players for the 2024 T20 World Cup in West Indies and the USA, but before that, there is

There is a working theory developing among Australia’s hierarchy that Mitchell Starc‘s decision not to participate in the IPL could have had a major detrimental effect on his T20 form over recent years, highlighting the difficulty of playing all three formats as a fast bowler. Starc was a shock axing from Australia’s line-up to face

Aaron Finch won’t rush into a decision over his international future following Australia’s exit from the T20 World Cup, instead giving himself a chance to see how this season’s BBL goes. Having retired from ODIs in September, there are no international commitments for Finch until next August when Australia have T20s in South Africa. The

“Bugger…”, tweeted Glenn Maxwell, moments after England had edged to a two-wicket victory over Sri Lanka. But Australia’s fate was already out of their hands before that match, though they had been teased that they could yet get a reprieve to their stuttering title defence. In the end, however, their home World Cup ended in

Australia’s assistant coach Daniel Vettori pointed to Kane Richardson‘s death-bowling prowess as he defended the decision to leave out pace bowler Mitchell Starc for their match against Afghanistan on Friday. Starc was used as a third or fourth bowling option – as opposed to a new-ball bowler – for the best part of the men’s

Australia 168 for 8 (Maxwell 54*, Marsh 45, Naveen-ul-Haq 3-21) beat Afghanistan 164 for 7 (Rashid 48*, Gulbadin 39, Zampa 2-22) by four runs Glenn Maxwell did his best to keep Australia’s semi-final hopes alive with an assertive, unbeaten half-century, but the hosts’ chances of reaching the knockouts are out of their hands after a

Big picture Australia have everything to play for. The defending champions must win big and make huge net run rate gains against Afghanistan to have any hope of reaching the semi-finals. But even if Australia achieve both those things, their destiny is out of their hands as England’s match against Sri Lanka on Saturday will

Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes there will be some questions asked of Australia’s T20I team if, as the defending champions, they don’t progress to the semi-final of a home World Cup. Ponting, who had led Australia to two 50-over World Cup triumphs and also captained a team that made the semi-final in the inaugural

Australia captain Aaron Finch says he has a 70% chance of playing against Afghanistan on Friday night but was firm in stating that he would not compromise the team in any way if he is not fully fit given there is a possibility it might be his last game for Australia. Both Finch and Tim

Despite carrying a hamstring injury, captain Aaron Finch remains a chance to play in Australia’s must-win T20 World Cup game against Afghanistan on Friday night. Finch, Marcus Stoinis and Tim David all suffered hamstring injuries in Australia’s win against Ireland in Brisbane on Monday night. Finch suffered what he described as a “little hammy twinge”

Alan Thomson, the former Australia and Victoria fast bowler who took the first wicket in ODI history, has died aged 76. Thomson, who bowled with an unusual action where he delivered off the wrong foot, played four Tests in the elongated 1970-71 seven-Test Ashes series. He played in the first two Tests of that series

Australia 179 for 5 (Finch 63, McCarthy 3-29) beat Ireland 137 (Tucker 71*, Maxwell 2-14) by 42 runs The margin of victory will suggest the defending champions have got their campaign back on track. But it was a less-than-perfect performance from Australia as they beat Ireland by 42 runs to join New Zealand on five

While not yet certain, it feels as though this group is becoming a race for the second semi-final spot after New Zealand made a further statement with their big win over Sri Lanka. If that is indeed the case, then Australia and Ireland are firmly in that tussle. It may have felt unlikely that these

Aaron Finch has pondered whether removing double-header match days at a single venue would be a worthwhile option to avoid rain scuppering consecutive games as happened in Melbourne although conceded the logistical challenges of staging a World Cup were vast. The Australia-England contest at the MCG was abandoned, a decision that had felt inevitable for

Australia vs England – match abandoned Australia and England took a point each from their Group 1 match at the T20 World Cup after a wet, unsafe outfield led to their match being abandoned at the MCG. Both teams now have three points, after a win and a loss apiece in their opening two games.

Will Pucovski has taken an indefinite leave of absence from cricket for personal reasons that are unrelated to his repeated concussion troubles over the years. Pucovski played in Victoria’s first two Marsh Cup and Sheffield Shield games of the new season earlier this month, but he did not play in the last two Marsh Cup

Australia are negotiating a second Covid-positive case in three days with wicketkeeper Matthew Wade testing positive just 24 hours out from their vital clash with England at the MCG on Friday. Wade did not train at Australia’s optional indoor session at the Junction Oval on Thursday afternoon after testing positive. It follows hot on the

Aaron Finch has conceded there was “no excuse” for his painfully slow innings against Sri Lanka in Perth which heaped the pressure on Australia’s run chase until they were rescued by Marcus Stoinis. Finch could barely contain his frustration as he crawled to 31 not out off 42 balls in Australia’s seven-wicket win on Tuesday

Tim Paine has said he felt “abandoned” by Cricket Australia when the story of an explicit text-message exchange emerged last year and led to him resigning as Test captain shortly before the Ashes. For the first time, in his autobiography which is out on Tuesday, Paine addresses what effectively became the end of his international

Aaron Finch conceded that Australia’s hopes of defending their men’s T20 World Cup title may already be out of their hands because of the huge margin of the loss to New Zealand and its impact on their net run-rate. Although the table is in its most embryonic stage after the first day of the Super

New Zealand 200 for 3 (Conway 92*, Allen 42) beat Australia (Maxwell 28, Southee 3-6, Santner 3-31) by 89 runs Ten years can be a good time to wait for some things – inspiration, lifetime service awards, the right blend of salt and pepper in your hair – but not a win. New Zealand last

Big picture Less than one year after New Zealand were blown away by Australia in the 2021 T20 World Cup final in Dubai , the two teams come together once again, this time to launch the main draw of the 2022 T20 World Cup at what will be a packed SCG. However, with the La

In many ways, Australia’s preparation for their T20 title defence has felt like a contradiction. In all probability the XI that takes the field at the SCG on Saturday (weather permitting) will be the one that has appeared likely for quite some time, with Tim David replacing Steven Smith from the last T20 World Cup.

Adam Zampa has brushed off concerns about Australia’s form leading into their defence of the T20 World Cup title, believing that the extra edge provided by tournament play will bring the best of them. Australia were beaten 2-0 by England in the three-match series, and it would likely have been 3-0 without rain in Canberra,

Australia have suffered an injury scare two days out from their opening Men’s T20 World Cup match after back-up wicketkeeper Josh Inglis suffered a cut right hand in a golfing accident in Sydney. The incident was first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, and a team spokesperson confirmed that Inglis was being assessed in hospital

Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc has offered an inventive solution to tackle the problem of non-strikers leaving their crease too early, suggesting that umpires use on-ground cameras to make “short-run” calls if the non-striker tries to gain an advantage. The debate surrounding the spirit of cricket and fairness of such a dismissal was reignited last