Hopes ruled out for rest of the series, to fly back home

By Rahul Bajaj
for Cricketain.com

Published: November 2, 2009

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New Delhi: An injury hit Australian side got another body blow on Sunday with all-rounder James Hopes being ruled out of the rest of the seven match ODI series against India.

Cricket Australia on Sunday confirmed Hopes would return to Australia to continue his recovery from a right hamstring injury suffered during the first ODI at Vadodara. “James has done everything he can with medical staff to try and make himself available for the remaining games of the tour of India,” Cricket Australia physiotherapist Kevin Sims said.

“However, due to the compressed nature of this tour and his speed of recovery so far, we feel now we have insufficient time to have James fully fit to take part in the remaining games of this series. Therefore a decision has been made that James will return to Australia where he will continue his rehabilitation from this hamstring injury,” he said.

Australia’s National Selection Committee has named Victorian fast bowler Clinton McKay a replacement player for the injured Brett Lee, who too has been ruled out of the series and has returned home, while New South Wales all-rounder Moises Henriques will now remain with the squad for the remainder of the series.

“With the injuries to Brett Lee and James Hopes and both of these players returning to Australia, the National Selection Panel has taken the opportunity to add another bowler to the squad in Clinton McKay,” said NSP Chairman Andrew Hilditch. “Clinton is a young promising bowler who performed well at interstate level last season and has recently shown very good form for Victoria in the Champions League in India.”

“He will be very well suited to Indian conditions and we believe he is another young player to benefit from the experience of being in the Australian team set-up during this tour. We also feel he has the ability to perform well at the international level,” Hilditch said. “With Moises having played in the last ODI game and James Hopes going home, Moises will now remain with the squad in India for the duration of the series.”

Earlier, Australia had come to the tour without key players like Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin and Callum Ferguson.  In the team in place of Brad Haddin, wicketkeeper Tim Paine was also ruled out after a finger injury and Graham Manou made his international debut coming in for him at Nagpur.

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