Australia’s allrounder Ashton Agar has returned home from the India tour to play domestic cricket for Western Australia. Ahead of the third Test of the four-match Test series starting on March 1 in Indore, no one is named as the replacement for Agar in Australia’s Test squad.
Australian skipper Pat Cummins also returned to Australia due to family reasons, but he is likely to return back before the third Test. Agar played his last Test against South Africa in Sydney. Agar was part of the team as the second spinner along with Nathan Lyon. However, he did not get a chance to play any matches in India.
In his place, Australia gave the opportunity to young off-spinner Todd Murphy and Matthew Kuhnemann. The Australian team played with two spin bowlers in Nagpur and three in Delhi, but Agar was left out of the team in both matches.
Agar didn’t play a single match in BGT 2023
Australian selector Tony Dodemaide said that Agar was not selected because his bowling in Test cricket is not very effective. Dodemaide and Agar met at the team hotel and it was decided that he would go home. He is expected to return to India for the ODI series in March, where he can be a key player for the Kangaroos as they would require a quality off-spinner ahead of the 50-over World Cup in India later in the year.
Earlier, opener David Warner and fast bowler Josh Hazlewood also returned home due to their injuries. Hazlewood sustained in the Sydney Test last month and he is now ruled out of the entire four-match Test series against India. He is still not fully fit from the injury and was sent back home.
Warner has also not recovered from the injury suffered in the first innings of the second Test, after that he was ruled out of the remaining two Tests and went back to his home. This series was very important for the left-hander as he was out of form in the longest format for a while. However, he continued his poor form in the first two Tests.
Here’s how fans reacted:
AGar to ghar bhej diya 😂
— Sarthak (@iamback067) February 22, 2023
Sabko ghr bheje jaa rhe hai 😂😂
— Mantu Bhattacharya (@MantuBhattacha2) February 22, 2023
Kl Rahul ko bhi leke jao Bhai🤕
— Vinay Chipkar (@vinay_chipkar) February 22, 2023
11 bache hai kya ya dravid aur Vikram rathore ko fielding karna hoga
— Pratyush (@Pratyush1707) February 22, 2023
सब भाग जाएँगे तो खेलेगा कौन? 11 है ना?
— Kanand🇮🇳 (@kanandbhatt) February 22, 2023
bhai koi bachega khelne k liye kya??
— 82* (@kunnucasm) February 22, 2023
Kiya horaha hai sab ghar ko ja ray. Baki ke 2 test nahi khelna hai. Kiya maza ayega jab har din australia ke players gharcko jaraey
— Zaheer HD (@hd_zaheer) February 22, 2023
Agar be like mujhe khilaya bhi nahi 😭 pic.twitter.com/J8MVjaEtG8
— Vishal Deshmukh (@kaafiAverage) February 22, 2023
Aur Dusri Taraf Hum log hain Jo K L Rahul ko Ghar me hoke bhi Ghar nahi bhej paa rahe 😂
— Ravindra Bisht | रविन्द्र बिष्ट 🇮🇳 (@RavindraBishtUk) February 22, 2023
