Released from team, Agar flies home

NEW DELHI: Australia left-arm spinner Ashton Agar has flown home after he was released from the Test squad, which is touring India, to play domestic cricket, national selector Tony Dodemaide said on Wednesday.

Agar will play for Western Australia in the closing stages of the domestic season. The 29-year-old is the latest Australian to return home midway into the tour, with the visitor having lost the first two Tests of the four-match series.

“He has worked incredibly hard, he has done his absolute best to support the team. We acknowledge all the work he has done, he has worked his backside off,” Dodemaide said of Agar, who has returned home without playing a match.

“In the first Test [in Nagpur], it was a very close call (between Todd Murphy, Agar and Mitchell Swepson) as to what spin structure we went with. The question mark of whether the two off-spinners could go together,” said the selector.

“We had Matt Kuhnemann coming in for the second Test [in Delhi], again a very close call with that. We just decided that Matt’s style would suit the conditions there.”