News

Australia's limited-overs captain Aaron Finch has been ruled out of the Bangladesh tour due to knee injury and the opener will leave for Australia from Barbados on Sunday.

Finch sustained the injury during a practice session leading into the T20I Series against the West Indies in St Lucia, which he further aggravated in the final game of that series which the hosts won 4-1.

Further, the attacking batsman also missed the starting 2 ODIs versus West Indies with Alex Carey captaining the side in his absence. Finch is expected to undergo a knee surgery after completing a 14-day quarantine period in Australia.

“I’m extremely disappointed to be heading home,” Finch said.

“This was considered the best course of action rather than traveling to Bangladesh, not being able to play and losing that recovery time. I will have the surgery if required and start the recovery process ahead of the World Cup.”

With the ODI series level at 1-1, wicketkeeper Alex Carey will continue to captain Australia for the final ODI match on Monday in Barbados.

Selectors will decide on a T20I captain ahead of the 5-match series against Bangladesh in Dhaka which will be held from August 3 to 9. Notably, wicketkeeper-batsman Matthew Wade was the vice-captain of the T20I side in West Indies. Also, he captained Australia against India last year.

The absence of Finch will further deplete Australia's batting line-up, with Steve Smith, David Warner, Marcus Stoinis, Marnus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell all missing the Caribbean and Bangladesh tours.