Jhye Richardson hoping to be fit for the Ashes but knows his selection is far from being a guarantee in the summer.
Jhye Richardson ‘not counting out the Ashes’ but faces race to be fit for summer.
With the Sheffield Shield season just seven weeks away, Jhye Richardson is still hopeful despite the fact that his chances of playing any role in the Ashes seem limited after he just bowled for the first time after his most recent shoulder surgery on Tuesday.
In an attempt to stop the recurrent dislocations he was experiencing and to position himself to be totally fit for the Ashes series, which begins on November 21, Richardson, 28, had his right bowling shoulder operated on for the third time in January.
Since taking his first five-wicket haul in Test cricket to secure victory in Adelaide during the most recent Ashes series in Australia, he has not participated in Test cricket. Since then, he has struggled with mental health concerns and a spate of injuries, including hamstring surgery in 2024. Since his last Test, he has only participated in four first-class games; the most recent one was in November of last year, when he dislocated his shoulder while giving a teammate a high five.
“Some were good, some were bad and some hit the side net and things like that. I was a little bit rusty but it’s good signs,” Richardson said. “We’re hitting the milestones that we planned out at the start and while it has been really slow, things are looking good.
“As nice as it would be [to play in the Ashes], there is a lot of water to go under the bridge before then. We’re not counting out Ashes cricket, but there’s a long process that has started and has been ongoing and there is a lot to go through before then. Things are looking good for the summer and I should be up and ready to go.”
Richardson planned to play some domestic cricket before the Ashes began, but he was unable to provide a specific date for his return to play for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield. Sam Konstas and Cameron Green, if rested from Australia’s T20I series in New Zealand, will be featured in WA’s first One-Day Cup match on September 21 before a thrilling opening Shield match against New South Wales at the WACA ground. Green will be bowling in red-ball cricket for the first time after a lengthy layoff due to a back injury.
“These are still ongoing conversations,” Richardson said. “Things that you don’t necessarily plan for can pop up, you can plateau a little bit in terms of progress.
“Shield cricket is definitely on the radar, whether it’s game one, two, three, four, five, six, whichever it is, I’m hoping there will be some Shield cricket at some stage and hopefully some cricket for Fremantle and some second XI cricket amongst that as well.”
“I think white-ball cricket is always good to build the loads for red-ball cricket. We know that bowling 10 overs at high intensity really helps. And match time is something that you can’t necessarily get in the nets. We know that that intensity is going to be important, so I’d say there’d be some white-ball cricket.”