The Guardian reported on March 12, 2013, that four players of Australian cricket team were axed from the squad before the third Test against India due to a breach in protocol.
The 3rd Test between India and Australia will be played on Friday at Mohali, India. The live scorecard can be seen here at 04:30 GMT onwards.
Shane Watson, James Pattinson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja are the players who were dropped from the Australian team for not complying with the team orders.
The vice-captain of the team, Shane Watson, who expected to return to the team for the third test against India, has now back home in Australia after being dropped.
Reports, though, suggest that Watson’s decision of heading home was not influenced by the axe but because his wife is expecting a baby and he wants to be with her.
Australia, as such, is in the midst of a disastrous tour of India and this decision of the team management is a further shocking twist to everyone.
According to reports, the reason for dropping these players is that they failed to obey rules of the team management as they didn’t met the deadline of making a presentation on improving their personal and team performance, which their coach Mickey Arthur had asked after losing at the second test.
Coach Mickey Arthur said in an announcement at a press conference in Mohali, "That's a line-in-the-sand moment. We have given these guys absolute clarity. After Hyderabad the whole team was really hurting, we were discussing ways of getting back into the series,"
"Unfortunately four players didn't comply with that. We pride ourselves on attitude. We have given the players a huge amount of latitude to get culture and attitude right,"
Players available for selection: Michael Clarke (capt), David Warner, Ed Cowan, Phillip Hughes, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Xavier Doherty, Nathan Lyon, Brad Haddin (wk).
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