Australian pacer John Hastings announced his retirement from Tests and One-Day Internationals (ODIs), Cricket Australia confirmed on Friday, October 6. In 2016, Hastings was one of the world’s leading ODI pacers after he picked up 29 wickets in 15 matches, equalling South Africa’s Imran Tahir second-most dismissals behind teammate Adam Zampa. The 31-year-old, who played one Test for Australia, will now solely concentrate on Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
“Trying to get back after four shoulder reconstructions, four major ankle operations and a major knee operation has just worn me down,” the Victorian told cricket.com.au.
“The body is just giving up and every time I try to load back to get back to four-day cricket or one-day cricket, it seems as if something else goes. It was a tough decision, one that wasn’t made lightly, but I’ve decided to give the two longer formats away and focus on T20,” Hastings added.
Steve Smith-led Australian cricket team is currently in India for 5 One Day Internationals and 3 T20 matches. In the 50-over format, they faced humiliation as the lost the series 4-1.
The Kangaroos will now be focusing on the T20I series starting from October 7 in Ranchi. With this, Australians will aim to gain some confidence before heading back to play the Ashes series in a month’s time.
Squads:
India: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ashish Nehra, Axar Patel.
Australia: Steve Smith (Captain), David Warner (vice-captain), Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine (WK), Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.
