Image Credit- BCCI
Australia’s provisional 15-man T20 World Cup squad does not include Steven Smith, one of their best three-format batsmen of the generation, or Jake Fraser-McGurk, their brightest young T20 batting talent. Instead, selectors chose to include Ashton Agar, a second specialist spinner, and Cameron Green, a backup all-rounder, to give Australia more flexibility throughout the competition.
Mitchell Marsh will lead the team as planned after Cricket Australia confirmed his appointment as the team’s permanent T20 captain on Wednesday morning. During the previous twelve months, Marsh had previously skippered Australia in three Twenty20 International series.
Josh Inglis was also chosen as the backup wicketkeeper and utility batsman behind first-choice keeper Matthew Wade, while Nathan Ellis was picked as the fourth fast bowling option after Australia’s top three players, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc.
The exclusion of Fraser McGurk is expected to create a stir in Australia given his incredible IPL exploits, which have included smashing three half-centuries in six innings at an absurd strike-rate of 233.33, despite the fact that he has only played two ODIs and no T20Is.
Smith was left out of a World Cup squad for the first time in ten years in any capacity, so his exclusion is less shocking. However, Smith had spent most of the 2022 World Cup leading the drinks, so he had long been marginalised in Australia’s first-choice T20I squad. Despite having the opportunity to open in two Twenty20 Internationals against India in November of last year and two more against New Zealand in February, he was unable to force his way beyond Australia’s current top three.
The selectors decided to put their faith in Travis Head, David Warner, and Marsh—an accomplished combination that won the ODI World Cup the previous year. Additionally, they had long already resolved the middle order involving Wade, Tim David, Glenn Maxwell, and Marcus Stoinis.