MELBOURNE: Australia pace bowler Kane Richardson has been ruled out of their limited-overs tour of Pakistan due to a hamstring injury and will be replaced by the uncapped Ben Dwarshuis, Cricket Australia said on Tuesday.

Left-armer Dwarshuis joins a squad that is also missing pacemen Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, who are set to return home following the ongoing third and final Test in Lahore.

Australia, who are on their first trip to Pakistan since 1998, are scheduled to play three One-day Internationals and one Twenty20 match against the hosts in Lahore from March 29 to April 5.

Richardson’s injury in training and subsequent withdrawal means that Jason Behrendorff will lead the charge for Australia and will be supported by the likes of Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis and Dwarshuis.

“One thing that will help is the guys have played a lot of T20 cricket,” limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch said of his pace bowlers ahead of their departure for Pakistan.

“They’re quite inexperienced for Australia but playing T20 cricket will help them in that regard. There’s a lot of skill in the group and guys that have been around one-day cricket for a long time domestically as well.

“Having a lot of a lot of faith in their own ability is really important. When you have got guys like Abbott, he’s been around (international cricket) for a long time, Behrendorff — they’ve played a lot of state cricket, so it’ll be fine.”

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2022