Australian fast bowler Patrick Cummins will skip the T20I series against India to keep himself fresh for the first Ashes test at Gabba which starts from November 23. Cummins is known to be injury prone and hence wants to take rest to avoid workload. Andrew Tye has been named as his replacement.

Tye is known to be a strong lad, tough guy from Perth, Western Australia who bowls medium pace and is known for his lusty hits lower down the order, another one who comes from a T20 brand of players. He has played 5 T20Is for Australia so far. He made his last international appearance in February this year. In IPL he took a hattrick for Gujarat Lions this season.

Apart from Cummins Wade, Handscomb, Faulkner, Stoinis, and Agar will be sent home and Henriques, Beherendoff, Paine and Christian will be joining the squad.

Australia plays 3 T20Is against India at Ranchi, Guwahati, and Hyderabad on October 7, 10 and 13 respectively. They have already lost the ODI series and will be playing for pride in T20Is.

Cummins made a comeback into Australian test side this March after 5 years and impressed everyone with devastating pace. He now makes into Australia”s first choice XI in both test and ODIS and is an invaluable asset in their pace battery. Cummins along with Starc and Hazlewood will make the deadliest place in the world when they team up during the Ashes.

After the India tour, Australia plays the much-anticipated Ashes starting on November 23, followed by a 5-match ODI series against England and T20 tri-series featuring New Zealand as the third team. They toured South Africa for 4 tests in March 2018.

Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Andrew Tye.

– by Atharva Apte