Australia received a huge blow as allrounder Glenn Maxwell is set to miss the Twenty20 series opener against India at Adelaide due to a lingering hamstring injury that kept him out of the fifth ODI at Sydney.
Maxwell flew home to Melbourne earlier today while he other members of the Australian T20 squad arrived in Adelaide for the Tuesday’s T20 encounter. This was confirmed by Australia’s acting coach Michael Di Venuto and he also revealed that the Big Show join the Aussies in a couple of days after resting his hamstring.
"He has still got a little slight hamstring niggle so ... he will spend a few days in Melbourne at home and join the squad when we get there in a couple of days," Di Venuto told reporters at Adelaide Airport.
With Maxwell out, emerging South Australian batsman Travis Head, who starred in the BBL is likely to make his international debut against India before his home crowd.
Di Venuto also said that the entire 17-man roster would feature in the Indian series as selectors want to try all the players ahead the T20 World Cup starting in March.
"Obviously, there is a big carrot at the end of this with the World Cup team being picked, and you can only pick 15 people so we want to give people opportunities to see what they can do," he said.
He also wanted the players not to treat this as an audition and want them to just go out and give their best for the team.
"It's also important that they don't treat it as that. They have also just got to go out and play. If they're thinking about the World Cup they are likely to go out there and get a bit of stage fright so they have just got to play the game the way they have been playing," he said.
Regarding Darren Lehman’s health, Di Venuto said that it will difficult for the head coach to come back and coach Australia during their tour to New Zealand.
“It was a bit of a scare yesterday with Boof (Lehmann) going for a scan and then straight into the hospital with DVT. The good news is he's on the road to recovery. I spoke to him this morning, he's in good spirits and his health is improving ... hopefully Boof will be right in a week or so,” he concluded.
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