Australian pace bowler Jhye Richardson has no issues with Cricket Australia (CA) resting him for the historic tour of Pakistan in March-April this year, saying he would rather concentrate on the five-match T20I series against Sri Lanka at home beginning at Sydney on February 11.The 25-year-old Richardson was in Test wilderness for nearly three years before he was part of the Australian side that defeated England by 275 runs in the D/N Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval. He immediately made an impact with a 5/42 in the second innings, but was ruled out of the remaining three Tests due to a left-foot and shin injury.The Cricket Australia selection panel wants to take a cautious approach with the right-arm pacer who has suffered a series of shoulder injuries in recent years, and have included him in the T20I series against Sri Lanka to keep him injury-free.
"For me now the focus is most certainly on the Sri Lankan series with another T20 World Cup coming up (in Australia)," Richardson told cricket.com.au on Tuesday.
"These conversations (with CA selection panel) have always been positive, there's never been a negative word said regardless. It's making sure we're in the best place possible to play for the next 10 years and making sure the body is right and 100 per cent moving forward. No doubt it would be exciting to play Test cricket in the subcontinent, it's a big challenge," added Richardson.CA's selection panel chair George Bailey said Richardson would get plenty of international opportunities during the winter to play the longest format of the game."If you look through that schedule there's an enormous amount of cricket coming up so I think Jhye will be comfortable and get enough cricket.
Jhye is highly talented across all formats; he's a player that we've got long-term expectations and long-term hopes for," said Bailey."He still hasn't played a huge amount of cricket coming back from the injuries and things that he's had over the past couple of years so (it's) just making sure that he gets the opportunity to build up … is really important."Richardson also opined that head coach Justin Langer, whose term expires in June this year, should be rewarded with a fresh contract as he had guided the team to its maiden ICC T20 World Cup title and a 4-0 Ashes win.Richardson, who played under Langer at Western Australia, said, "For someone to come and take the World Cup, to then win an Ashes 4-0, I can't fault anything that JL (Langer) has done," Richardson said."JL and I have always gotten along really well. What he's been able to achieve recently has been absolutely amazing. And no doubt the guys from a playing point of view have full faith in him. He's been awesome."