Dwarshuis called up, Richardson out of Pakistan tour

Australia will field one of their most inexperienced pace attacks in more than 50 years of one-day international cricket after a hamstring injury ruled Kane Richardson out of their limited-overs tour of Pakistan.

Left-armer Ben Dwarshuis has been included for the three-ODI (and one T20I) series in Lahore after Richardson's injury, suffered at training on Monday in Melbourne, robbed an already green fast-bowling group of their most experienced member.

Test trio Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins are all heading home after the final Test of the tour finishes on Friday, and while Richardson's hamstring twinge is only considered minor, the Aussies decided it was not worth putting him on the plane for a series featuring four games in just eight days.

With 11 ODIs to his name, Jason Behrendorff will now be the de facto leader of a pace group completed by Sean Abbott (two ODIs), Nathan Ellis and now Dwarshuis (both yet to debut).

Spinners Adam Zampa (61 ODIs) and Ashton Agar (15) are old stagers by comparison, while the attack will also be bolstered by seam-bowling allrounders Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis and Mitch Marsh.

The tour will be the fourth time in the past five years that Australia will embark on a one-day campaign without at least one of Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins in their squad, with two of those previous instances resulting in a 0-5 series defeat.

But captain Aaron Finch is confident he has the bowling cattle for what will be just the second ODI series Australia have played in the past 15 months.

"One thing that will help is the guys have played a lot of T20 cricket," Finch said of his fast-bowling group on Tuesday ahead of their departure for Pakistan.

"They're quite inexperienced for Australia but I think playing T20 cricket will help them in that regard. There's a lot of skill in the group and guys that have been around one-day cricket for a long time domestically as well.

"Having a lot of a lot of faith in their own ability is really important.

"When you have got guys like Abbott, he's been around (international cricket) for a long time, Behrendorff (as well) – they've played a lot of state cricket, so I think it'll be fine."

Behrendorff, Abbott and Ellis have played 18 international T20s between them while all three have also played in the high-stakes Indian Premier League. Dwarshuis has been on IPL squad lists before and has almost 100 domestic T20s to his name.

Australia picked three uncapped quicks – Joe Mennie, Daniel Worrall and Chris Tremain – for their 2016 tour of South Africa but still had the relatively experienced duo of John Hastings (23 ODIs before that tour) and Scott Boland (10) to offer support.

Even when Hastings sat out the final match of a series that ended in a 5-0 drubbing, the pace trio of Boland, Tremain and Mennie (a total of 18 games played) were relative veterans compared to the attack that took on England almost two years later.

In that campaign, Australia fielded a pace attack – Jhye Richardson, Andrew Tye and Billy Stanlake – that had just 11 games of experience for the third match of the series and England promptly racked up a world record score of 6-481 at Trent Bridge.

Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins were also rested from the home series against India in 2019, which Australia lost 2-1, when the Aussie attack was led by Behrendorff, Jhye Richardson and Peter Siddle.

The 2016 South African tour had marked the first time in more than 30 years that the Aussies had blooded three new quicks in the same one-day series, with the previous instance coming in 1986 when the frontline pace attack included debutants Bruce Reid, Simon Davis and Dave Gilbert as well as a previously uncapped allrounder from New South Wales by the name of Stephen Waugh.

But that group was given valuable support from 20-year-old spearhead Craig McDermott, who had impressed in taking 28 wickets in the 17 ODIs he'd played over the previous 12 months.

The 1986 trio of Reid, Gilbert and Davis was the first instance in almost eight years of Australia fielding three pace-bowling debutants in the same one-day international.

The previous occasion came in the first match of a two-and-a-half month tour of the Caribbean in 1978, when an Australian side whose playing stocks had been ravaged by the Packer revolution took to the field for an ODI in Antigua with a four-man pace attack that included debutants Wayne Clark, Ian Callen and Trevor Laughlin.

And were supported by firebrand Jeff Thomson, in his fifth season of international cricket but - due to the paucity of one-day international cricket played at the time - had just eight ODIs to his name.

Qantas Tour of Pakistan 2022

Pakistan ODI and T20 squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Abdullah Shafique*, Asif Afridi, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imam-ul-Haq*, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Zahid Mahmood, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Saud Shakeel*, Shaheen Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir (*ODIs only)

Australia ODI and T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

March 29: First ODI, Lahore

March 31: Second ODI, Lahore

April 2: Third ODI, Lahore

April 5: Only T20I, Lahore

All matches to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports