Will Pucovski will not be available for Test selection, after informing team officials on Tuesday of his need to focus on his mental wellbeing
Promising batsman Will Pucovski has ruled himself out of selection for Australia’s test series against Pakistan due to “matters pertaining to mental wellbeing”, Cricket Australia said on Thursday.
The 21-year-old right-hander was in the running to make his test debut but reported the issue to team management in Perth while playing for Australia A against Pakistan, where he was out for five in the first innings and did not bat in the second.
Ben Oliver, Cricket Australia’s EGM of National Teams, said Australian cricket would always place the wellbeing of its people ahead of performance.
“We applaud Will for having the courage to discuss his situation with team management,” he said.
“Will’s decision not to nominate for test selection was the right one in the circumstances and one that everyone in the Australian cricket family supports.”
The right-hander, who impressed with Australia A in England during the winter, began the Shield season brightly with 123 against South Australia, and seemed optimistic about the manner in which he was managing his mental health.
“I’m going well,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of structures in place, which is really good. I can count on them when the time comes. It’s an ongoing thing that I’m trying to improve as much as I can, as often as I can.
I’m really looking forward to the summer ahead, which is good and probably a different view from 12 months ago. When you compare the two, you go, ‘I’m in a pretty good place compared to where I was 12 months ago’, which means I’m doing everything right in that field.
Pucovski, who hit 243 for Victoria in a Sheffield Shield game against Western Australia last year, has previously taken a six-week break from cricket because of mental health issues and left the Australia squad that played Sri Lanka this year for the same reason.
Australia will name their squad later on Thursday for next week’s first test in Brisbane.
Domain Test Series v Pakistan
Australia squad: TBC
Pakistan squad: Azhar Ali (c), Abid Ali, Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Imam-ul-Haq, Imran Khan Snr, Iftikhar Ahmed, Kashif Bhatti, Mohammad Abbas, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Musa Khan, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Yasir Shah.
Warm-up match: v Australia A, November 11-13, Perth Stadium (Draw)
Warm-up match: v Cricket Australia XI, November 15-16, WACA Ground
First Test: November 21-25, Gabba (Seven, Fox & Kayo)
Second Test: November 29 – December 3, Adelaide (Seven, Fox & Kayo)