Maddinson pulls out of tour game on mental health grounds

Melbourne, Nov 9 Citing mental health concerns, top-order batsman Nic Maddinson has withdrawn from the three-day tour game between Australia A clash and Pakistan starting from November 11 in Perth ahead of the two-Test series.

Maddinson will be replaced in the Australia A XI by Western Australia batsman Cameron Bancroft, reports cricket.com.au. Wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey will be leading the Australia A side.

Throwing support behind Maddinson, Cricket Australia's EGM of National Teams Ben Oliver said: "The wellbeing of our players is always our primary concern."

"We are proud that our players are comfortable to speak honestly and openly about how they are feeling.

"We will provide Nic with all the support and care we can and wish him a full and speedy recovery. We also ask that Nic's privacy be respected at this time," he added.

The withdrawal of the 27-year-old Victoria batsman follows the decision of Glenn Maxwell to step back from the spotlight midway through Australia's T20I International series with Sri Lanka last month.

In eight games for Victoria over the past two seasons, Maddinson had hit four centuries, including a career-best 224 in their Shield season-opener earlier this month, for a total of 952 runs at 79.33.

Australia A squad: Alex Carey (c), Marcus Harris, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Will Pucovski, Travis Head, Cameron Bancroft, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Sean Abbott, Riley Meredith.

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