Australia draft in Chadd Sayers for injured Jackson Bird

Jackson Bird, the medium-pacer, has been ruled out of Australia's Test tour of South Africa after suffering a hamstring injury in Tasmania’s Sheffield Shield match against Queensland. Chadd Sayers, the uncapped South Australia paceman, has been called up as a replacement. He will join the rest of the squad in time for the three-day tour game against a Cricket South Africa Invitational XI in Benoni starting 22 February.

Bird was part of the squad that won the Ashes 4-0 recently, even though he was confined to the bench for the most part, playing only the fourth Test in Melbourne when he went 30 overs without a wicket in England’s only innings in a drawn affair. The injury is likely to put him on the sidelines for around two to three weeks.

“It is tough news for him,” said Steve Smith, the Australia captain, on the sidelines of the Allan Border Medal ceremony. “He's a terrific guy to have around the group, he works incredibly hard.

“It's disappointing for Jackson, but it's exciting for Chadd at the same time. It's a like-for-like (replacement), they're both pretty similar. They both stand the seam up nicely and Chadd's been rewarded for what he's done in Shield cricket over the last couple of years.”

Sayers, 30, has been a consistent performer for South Australia, and in a first-class career spanning 60 matches, he has picked up 246 wickets at an impressive 24.11. He will now join Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and the uncapped Jhye Richardson to form the pace attack in South Africa.

“He's very accurate, he knows what he's doing, he stands the seam up,” said Smith of Sayers. “If there's anything in the wicket, he'll certainly get everything out of it. He's a difficult one, because he's so short, not many balls go over the stumps, which makes him a pretty handy proposition when the ball is seaming around. It's a good selection.”

The first Test will be played in Durban from 1 March, following which the teams will travel to Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Johannesburg to round off the series.

Squad: Steve Smith (capt), David Warner (vice-capt), Cameron Bancroft, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Jon Holland, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Jhye Richardson, Chadd Sayers, Mitchell Starc.