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Once considered as Mitchell Starc's future successor in the Australian side, left-arm pacer Spencer Johnson is set for a long absence from the cricketing action, both international and domestic. Johnson, who sustained a back injury while representing Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, continues to be sidelined. Australia’s chief selector George Bailey hopes that the 29-year-old comes back to the action later in the ongoing season whether it is in domestic cricket or ODIs and T20Is.
"The latest update for Spencer is that it'll be sometime in the new year that he'll start to come back online again," Bailey said in statement. "What that looks like and at what point, I don't think there's anything definitive on that, still hoping that he can have an impact both domestically and potentially internationally towards the back end of the [season]."
Earlier this year, Johnson was named in Australia’s T20I squad for the West Indies series but was later withdrawn.
Just 4 games in IPL 2025 for KKR
The Adelaide-born pacer's last appearance in professional cricket was in the IPL 2025 against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 8, 2025. Picked for Rs 2.8 crore, Johnson played four games for KKR in the season.
Johnson’s previous ODI and T20I appearance
His last ODI appearance was against Afghanistan in ICC Champions Trophy 2025 where he bagged two wickets for 49 runs. He is yet to play a T20I this year. His last T20I appearance was against Pakistan in November 2024 where he bagged two wickets.
Johnson has played five ODIs and eight T20Is so far. In ODIs, he is yet to shine and has just four wickets. In the T20Is, he has 14 wickets at an average of 17.07, including a five-wicket haul against Pakistan.
Chance for Dwarshuis to shine
With Starc retiring, Pat Cummins ruled out of white-ball action this year due to a lumbar bone stress and Nathan Ellis missing New Zealand T20I series due to paternity leave, Ben Dwarshuis has been named in the squad. Dwarshuis was part of the white-ball squads in the home series against South Africa and on the West Indies tour as well. He picked four wickets in the three-T20I series against the Proteas. On the Caribbean tour, he claimed eight wickets from four games, including a four-fer.
The 31-year-old may lack Starc and Johnson's pace but he is a very capable bowlers who has heaps of T20 experience in franchise cricket. From 10 T20Is, he has 18 wickets at an average of 19.94.
Australia’s T20I squad for New Zealand tour
Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
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