Josh Inglis: In what proves to be a massive news, Australia’s hard hitting wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Inglis has been appointed as the captain for the T20 International series versus Pakistan.Interestingly, the 29-year-old will also handle the leadership duties of the 2023 ODI World Cup winners in the third and final One Day International as the players picked in the squad for the forthcoming 2024 Border Gavaskar Trophy versus India get ready.
Josh has replaced Cummins as the skipper of the side, who, along with other senior members – Steven Smith, Josh Hazlewood, Marnus Labuschagne and Mitchell Starc will be missing the final fixture of the One Day International Series as they prepare themselves for the difficult Team India challenge.
With regular-captain Cummins getting himself ready and fully prepared for the BGT and regular T20 International skipper Mitchell Marsh missing out due to being on parternity-leave, the selection committee of the Kangaroos have backed Inglis, who has experience of captaining teams in Domestic Cricket.
“He (Inglis) is an essential member of the T20 International and One Day International teams and he’s highly-respected as a player both on & off the Cricket field,” George Bailey, Australia’s selection-commitee chairperson stated while announcing the changes.
“He will bring excellent tactical acumen and a positive-approach to the position, having previously captained Australia A,” Bailey added.
In the absence of important-players, the fast bowling duo of Spencer Johnson and Xavier Bartlett along with wicket-keeper batsman Josh Philippe have been added to the squad.
Australia hoping to clinch the series in the 2nd One Day International match
In what proved to be a low-scoring thriller and a nail-biting contest, the home side managed to finish out on top by a margin of two wickets in the opening fixture of the three-match series at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Batting first, the Mohammad Rizwan-led team managed to post a score of just 203 runs on the board as the Australian bowling unit wrecked havoc.
Babar (37 runs) and skipper Rizwan (44 runs) showed some retaliation and thanks to a late cameo with the bat by Naseem Shah, the Green Shirts managed to post an average-total on the score board.
However, the Pakistani bowlers created a nightmare for the Aussie batters as right arm pacer Haris Rauf dismissed three batters to turn the match in the favor of his team. But, much to the dismay of the Shaheen supporters, captain Pat Cummins maintained his composure and played an unbeaten knock of 32 runs in 31 deliveries to help his team end the match on a winning note. Now, with the senior-players given some rest for the final match of the series, the Kangaroos will be looking to clinch the ODI series by winning the second match.
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