Bird in for injured Pattinson

Australia

Australia have replaced injured seamer James Pattinson with Jackson Bird for the forthcoming Test tour of Bangladesh that gets underway later this month.

This comes less than 24 hours after Mitchell Starc was ruled out of the tour and was replaced by leg spinner Mitchell Swepson.

Bird may have counted himself a little unlucky to miss out on the squad in the first place having done well against South Africa and Pakistan at the turn of the year.

He lost his place in the XI to Pat Cummins on the India tour which he was a part of despite not playing a single Test.

Pattinson has had a horror run of injuries and has not featured in a Test since February 2016 when he faced New Zealand in Christchurch.

The tour to Bangladesh had been in doubt but the resolution of the headline grabbing pay dispute this week will come as a relief to the hosts.

Bird has made the cut ahead of seamers Chad Sayers, who was the leading wicket-taker in the Sheffield Shield last season, as well as Chris Tremain and Jason Behrendorff evidence of the healthy state of fast bowling in Australia.

The first Test against Bangladesh gets underway on August 27 in Mirpur.

Australia squad: Steven Smith (capt), David Warner (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Matthew Wade (wk), Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Matt Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Jackson Bird.

Australia tour to Bangladesh

Latest