Morris and Richardson backed for summer opportunities after injury challenges

Australia’s selectors are taking a long-term view with pace bowlers Lance Morris and Jhye Richardson to try and ensure they can put injury problems behind them.

Morris, the Western Australia quick who made his ODI debut last season against West Indies having also been part of the Test squad, is working his way through another rehab from a stress injury of his back which has prevented him playing during the winter. It is a repeat of what happened after the 2022-23 season when he was ruled out of the Ashes tour.

Morris had earlier suffered a side strain in his second ODI appearance which curtailed his summer. He had been due to appear for Seattle Orcas in Major League Cricket before post-season scans showed a hot spot in his back and he wasn’t considered for the tour of Scotland and England.

“Lance is still working through his return to play and getting himself right recovering from that stress fracture of the back,” national selector George Bailey said. “Know he’s progressing well, he’s feeling good, he’s starting to get to that point where he wants some cricket and think he’s going to get a hell of a lot of it over the summer and that will be really exciting to see him back.

“Felt a little bit like with him, that we wanted to set him up for success in the long term as opposed to pushing that too early then potentially risking what we think is something that could be really exciting across this summer and beyond.”

Richardson, who is “fit and firing” according to Bailey, made one appearance for Delhi Capitals in IPL 2024 after another disrupted domestic season where he suffered a side strain during the BBL having just been recalled to the ODI squad. He last appeared for Australia against Sri Lanka in mid-2022.

Both Morris and Richardson were given Cricket Australia central contracts earlier this year.

“Jhye is in a similar boat,” Bailey said. “He’s fit and firing now, and again looking for match opportunities. I think he’ll get opportunities again across the summer. For both [him and Morris] I think it’s getting through the season fit and then hopefully maximising the amount of cricket they play. Some of that will be domestic, hopefully there will be some international opportunities [and] Australia A opportunities, then I think we set them up for success in the long term.”

The durability of Australia’s big three quicks – Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins – has meant limited changes to the Test pace attack in recent times beyond the appearance of Scott Boland when one of them has been sidelined. They have also featured regularly in the ODI and T20 World Cups across the last nine months although have been rotated a little more outside of those events.

Cummins will miss the entire UK tour so he can work on conditioning ahead of the home summer. Starc will skip the T20Is before returning for the ODIs while Hazlewood features in both squads. Emerging quicks Xavier Bartlett and Spencer Johnson are in the T20I group alongside Nathan Ellis who can expect greater opportunity. Sean Abbott, who played one game at the ODI World Cup, is in the 50-over squad alongside Ellis, Hazlewood and Starc.

Whether Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins can get through the whole five-Test series against India later this year will likely again be a debate and the selectors have factored those workloads into their planning.

“As far as the fast bowling group goes, think we’ve got a pretty exciting bunch there that we haven’t had the opportunity to get a lot of games into across the formats predominantly because we’ve had a highly successful and robust senior group of fast bowlers,” Bailey said.

“Clearly some of the decisions made around this series is around priortising and getting guys right for what will be a really big summer and for some guys this is an opportunity to get a little bit more work into what they are going to need to be ready for that.”

Victoria and Melbourne Renegades allrounder Will Sutherland was another not considered for the latest squads after suffering another back stress fracture late last season. He had also made his ODI debut against West Indies in February.