Aussies get pace boost for Champs Trophy

FAST T bowlers Mitchell Starc and James Pattinson were yesterday ay named in Australia’s 15-man man squad for next month’s ICC Champions Trophy in Englandand and Wales.

St arc ( pi c t ured, AFP) ) has recovered d from a stress ss fracture in his right f o o t t h a t s e n t h i m home me from Australia’s ralia’s Test series es in India l a s t monthmont h , while e Pattinson is fit again after serious ous shin and back k injuries.

Pattinson ttinson is currently ly playing for Nottinghamshire tinghamshire in Englishnglish cricket after ter taking part in V i c t o - ria’sria s Sheffield Shield champicham onship victory in the rece recently finished domestic season. Selectors have boo boosted Australia’s fast-bow fast-bowling stocks for the ChampiCham ons Trophy with S Starc, Pattinson and John HastH ings joining Josh HazleHa wood and Pat Cummins.Cumm “Both James and JohnJ have made very g good returns from injury and are bowling well for their respecres tive teams . . . as well as both conc tributing well with the bat,” chief selector TrevorTr Hohns said. “When you a lso add Mit c he l l S t a r c , J Jo s h Ha z le woodwoo d a nd P a t Cummins to t he f a st b o w l i n g a r t i l l e r y i t becomes a ver y excitingexci proposition for AustralAus ia n cricket.”

Bi g - h i t t i n g Queens l a n d batsman Chris Lynn has also been named in the squad as he returns from a third shoulder injury inside two years, while playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

“Our medical staff will continue to monitor Mitchell and Chris’s recovery from their respective injuries, but we are hopeful they will be fit in time for the team’s departure on May 18,” Hohns said.

New South Wales batting allrounder Moises Henriques has also been recalled to the side having last played for the national one-day squad against Sri Lanka in August last year.

But Tasmanian all-rounder James Faulkner was omitted from the side, with Hohns describing him as an “unlucky omission” after other players returned to fitness.

The selected players who are in Australia will depart for England on May 18, with the remaining players in the IPL to join as their teams finish in the tournament.

Windies to face Pakistan

Meanwhile, West Indies and Pakistan get a three-Test series underway today at Sabina Park in Jamaica with both teams struggling in the midst of challenging transition periods.

Despite victories in both the T20 and one-day international series earlier in the tour, the tourists have shaped up as a far more vulnerable outfit in the traditional format of the game.

The home side, who remain mired in the lower reaches of the international rankings, look set to make further alterations to their line-up in the quest for a consistent winning formula.

Pakistan topped the Test rankings last September fol- lowing their drawn series in England.

But a slump of six consecutive defeats, ironically initiated by the West Indies in Sharjah five and a half months ago at the end of an otherwise disastrous campaign for the Caribbean team, has seen them slip to fifth and increased public pressure on Misbah-ul-Haq to step down as captain.

After much speculation Misbah has announced that this series will be his last before retiring from the international game.

And only last week fellow veteran Younis Khan, Pakistan’s most prolific run-scorer in Test history, also revealed that the West Indies tour will be his last in national colours.

Khan goes into the match needing just 23 more runs to become the first Pakistani to amass 10,000 runs in Tests.