Cricket Australia (CA) has placed restrictions on its star cricketers Steve Smith and Travis Head for the current season of the Big Bash League. While Smith will play three matches in the prestigious tournament, Head is ruled out for the entire season.
The restrictions were imposed by CA due to Australia’s upcoming tour of Sri Lanka where they will play a two-match Test series. Both players are important players of the team and also form the backbone of their strong middle order.
Restrictions on Travis Head and Steve Smith
Travis Head recently suffered an injury scare during the Melbourne Test between Australia and India and was a doubt for the final Test in Sydney. However, he recovered in time and played in the fifth Test at SCG.
Travis Head has been ruled out of the upcoming BBL as he has been asked to rest ahead of an important tour of the subcontinent. At number 5, he is one of the most important and in-form players on the team. He also emerged as the top run-getter in the recently concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy with 448 runs in five Tests with 2 hundreds and a fifty.
Meanwhile, Steve Smith has also shown great form recently. He started the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a couple of poor results, but scored hundreds in Brisbane and Melbourne and heralded a return to form. He scored 314 runs in five Tests with 2 hundreds.
Steve Smith will miss the match between the Sydney Sixers and the Melbourne Stars at the MCG, but will be available to play in the Sydney Sixers’ match against the Perth Scorchers at the SCG on Saturday. His final two games will be against the Adelaide Strikers and Sydney Thunder on January 15 and 17 respectively.
What about Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labushagne?
Meanwhile, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne will be available for just one game. Both will play in the Brisbane Heat’s home game against the Hobart Hurricanes at the Gabba on January 16. They will not be available for the final game against Melbourne Renegades on January 18 as the team is due to leave for Sri Lanka the following day.
Other Australian players such as Alex Carey, Sam Konstas, Beau Webster, Mitchell Marsh and Jhye Richardson will be available until the end of the season. Carey played all the games in the recent Test series, while Konstas played in the last two matches at the MCG and SCG.
Mitchell Marsh dropped out of the final Test and Beau Webster made the most of the opportunity to all but seal his place for the Sri Lankan tour. Jhye Richardson was a reserve and failed to play a single game in the domestic Tests.
The bowlers got a rest
Offspinner Nathan Lyon was also rested for the remainder of the BBL season. Lyon had little to do in the recent Test series against India and didn’t have much of a role to play. But in the upcoming series against Sri Lanka, he will have a bigger burden.
All other fast bowlers like Scott Boland, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc have also been asked to rest ahead of the busy Test tour. All these players are BBL contract players.
Australia to announce 16-man squad for tour of Sri Lanka. The team will first travel to the UAE for a camp on January 19-20. This rules them out of the final phase of the BBL which will be played from January 21-27.
