Key Australia duo to sit out ODI series against West Indies
Two fresh faces are in line to make their international debut next month after Australia re-shuffled their squad to face the West Indies
Australia have suffered a blow with news that a pair of key players will miss next month's three-match ODI series against the West Indies.
Star all-rounder and recent ICC Men's Cricket World Cup winner Glenn Maxwell will miss the trio of matches on home soil after he was managed, while fast bowler Jhye Richardson has also been withdrawn from the 13-player group due a side injury.
Glenn Maxwell hit some towering sixes in Mumbai.
Maxwell joins fellow World Cup winners Pat Cummins, Mitch Marsh, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood as first-choice players that will miss the series, with experienced batter Steve Smith to lead the side and left-hander Travis Head his deputy.
To cover the absence of Maxwell and Richardson, Australia have called up young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk and pacer Xavier Bartlett and the duo are in contention to make their first international appearance if selected during the series against the Carbirean side.
Fraser-McGurk turned heads last year when he broke AB de Villiers' record for the fastest List A century he smashed a 29-ball ton when playing domestic cricket in Australia.
Bartlett, meanwhile, is a right-arm pacer that has impressed in recent white-ball fixtures at domestic level and also produced a handful of good performances when playing for Australia's Under 19 team last decade and for Australia A against New Zealand A last year.
The three-match ODI series against the West Indies commences in Melbourne on February 2, with games also scheduled in Sydney and Canberra prior to a further three-match T20I series between the two sides between February 9-13.
Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), Travis Head (vc), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Matt Short, Adam Zampa