Ben Dwarshuis out of ODI series against India but Brendan Doggett, Sean Abbott and Beau Webster are poised to return

Chief men’s selector George Bailey insists he is comfortable with Australia’s pace depth a month out from the start of the Ashes with several fringe fast bowlers poised to return from injury next week.

While captain Pat Cummins’ recovery from lumbar back stress has understandably drawn most of the attention in the build up to the series opener on November 21, recent Test squad members Brendan Doggett (hamstring) and Sean Abbott (hand) are also currently sidelined.

Likewise with incumbent allrounder Beau Webster who has missed Tasmania’s first two Sheffield Shield matches with a rolled ankle, while Jhye Richardson is yet to play this season after undergoing shoulder surgery in January.

White-ball quick Ben Dwarshuis is the latest to be added to a growing list of injury concerns after going down with a left calf strain in New Zealand earlier this month, which saw him subsequently miss the first ODI against India in Perth on Sunday.

The left-armer is hopeful of returning for the five-match T20 series against India later this month, while Abbott will be available again for the first T20 international on October 29.

Abbott must serve a mandatory 12-day stand down period after he was subbed out of NSW’s Shield clash with Victoria last week when he split the webbing on his bowling hand.

Abbott subbed out of Shield match with injury

Doggett and Webster are both on track to return for their respective states in round three of the Shield season, beginning a day earlier on October 28.

It will be the last round of the Shield season before selectors name their squad for the first Test against England.

Richardson meanwhile, who like Doggett and Abbott has been part of the Test squad in the past year, bowled two extended spells off his long run to Australia’s ODI squad in Perth last week and will return to action via club cricket in November.

Bailey said it was too early to know whether Richardson could figure in Australia’s Ashes plans but he was confident they had a battery of up to nine quicks they could call on if pace reinforcements are required throughout the summer.

Reinforcements haven’t been needed during the two previous home summers where Mitchell Starc and Cummins played all five Tests, while they haven’t had to look beyond the quartet of those two, plus Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland since December 2022.

But Bailey insists that remains the exception and not the norm.

“Any year they have got through all five, that’s surprising, we don’t plan for that, there’s always back up plans,” Bailey said on the weekend.

Cummins addresses back ‘stiffness’ as Ashes nears

“I’m comfortable with the depth and what we’ve got there. I think we’ve got a stable of seven, eight or nine bowlers that in different conditions at different times could come in and perform really strongly.

“Some of them haven’t got as much cricket (behind them) – Brendan Doggett for example, (but) he’s been in and around the Test squad and he’ll be returning in the next Shield round.

“Sean Abbott’s been in so many white-ball squads over the last couple of years and hasn’t had heaps of red-ball cricket and had a little setback (splitting his webbing) in the last game.

“He’ll play the T20s (against India) and Shield round four as well.

“Come the time the whips are cracking, I’m comfortable they’ll be in a good place.”

While Cummins’ chances of featuring in the Ashes opener are diminishing, Mitchell Starc played his first match of the home summer on Sunday, claiming the prized scalp of Virat Kohli for a duck in Australia’s seven-wicket first ODI win.

Josh Hazlewood also took two wickets in that match, while Scott Boland fired Victoria to a thrilling 38-run Shield win last Friday with the final five NSW wickets in the second innings.

Boland brilliance inspires Vics to thrilling Shield victory

Boland was rested from Victoria’s one-day victory over NSW on Monday and is also set to sit out their next Shield match before returning for a blockbuster round four rematch against the Blues that Starc, Hazlewood, Steve Smith, Nathan Lyon and Abbott are also planning to play.

Travis Head is also a chance to turn out for South Australia that week, meaning the Aussies’ entire XI for the first Test a week later in Perth could play for their respective states in round four of the Sheffield Shield.

Like Australia’s hierarchy did when ruling fellow allrounder Cameron Green out of the ongoing ODI series with low grade side soreness, Bailey said they’d taken an equally conservative approach with Webster’s ankle injury.

Green’s anticipated return to bowling for the Ashes has left Webster’s spot in the team in limbo but Bailey said they couldn’t have “ask(ed) for anything more” from the Tasmanian’s first seven Tests.

“He was keen to play (last) round as a batter, but our bigger picture for him was the last time he rolled his ankle, about five weeks later he had a bit of a soft tissue injury,” said Bailey.

“We’re just taking Beau through the journey of let’s work back from Sydney, rather than up to Perth and for the sake of one extra week, let’s get it right and launch yourself into Shield round three (against Victoria in Melbourne).”

Australia v India ODIs 2025

October 19: Australia won by seven wickets (DLS method)

October 23: Second ODI v India, Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, 2:30pm AEDT

October 25: Third ODI v India, SCG, Sydney, 2:30pm AEDT

All matches live via Kayo Sports and Foxtel