The 15-man Australian squad for the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup.
The 2021 T20 World Cup winners surprised everyone by leaving out veteran batsman Steve Smith, young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk, experienced seamer Jason Behrendorff, and all-rounder Matt Short from their roster for the four-week event in the USA and the West Indies.
In spite of not having played a Twenty20 International since the 2022 tournament in Australia, left-arm spinner Ashton Agar is called up to the team. As all-rounders, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, and Cameron Green fill out the final roster.
Australia confirmed Mitchell Marsh’s promotion to full-time T20I alongside the roster announcement, and he will also serve as captain of the side.
George Bailey, who chairs the selection committee, is optimistic about Australia’s chances at the next Twenty20 World Cup, saying that the team is balanced and ready to compete.
Bailey stated, “This is an experienced squad with extensive World Cup experience that offers a variety of structures and covers the scenarios the panel believes will factor in the West Indies with the unique nature of the venues and our opponents.” The roster also has years of experience playing in the tournament.
It’s fantastic to have Ashton Agar back on the team after a string of unlucky injuries.
Along with Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Cam Green, and Mitch Marsh, we think Ashton can be an important cog in our front-line attack’s wheel in this tournament.
“The batting options provide a personalized strategy for every field and opponent.”
Bailey pointed out that with only 15 players available, many talented individuals were unfortunate not to be selected.
Bailey mentioned that they had lengthy discussions with Steve Smith, Matt Short, Jason Behrendorff, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, and Xavier Bartlett, among others. They also spoke about Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has not yet played Twenty20 International cricket, but is showing great promise and is improving quickly.
Limiting ourselves to a 15-man squad for World Cups is never easy, especially considering all the possible outcomes and adjustments we would like to make.
We will keep an eye on a few players that didn’t make the preliminary roster, and as a reminder, we have one month to make changes to the roster under ICC rules if we feel the need to.
“In the end, the best chance of success in this campaign will be determined by the remaining fifteen.”
Marsh will be making his big tournament debut as captain of the Australian Twenty20 International team at the Twenty20 World Cup, despite having spent the better part of a year in that capacity.
“It’s been an immense privilege to play for my country and now an even greater honour to lead the squad to a World Cup,” added Marsh.
“We have had some strong success in recent times and I am hopeful that will continue in what looks like a wide-open tournament.”
On June 5, Australia will play Oman in Barbados to kick off their Twenty20 World Cup campaign. Following that, they will play England, Namibia, and Scotland in Group B.
Squad for the Australian match: Mitchell Marsh (captain), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
