It was no real surprise when Cricket Australia announced a vastly different squad for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup than the one that has just returned home from a tour that was meant to provide relevant preparation for the tournament and ended with eight losses from ten matches.
After seven top shelf players withdrew from the tour, fatigued from extended time in bubbles, the positive line emerged that the winter tour to the Caribbean and Bangladesh would provide opportunities for fringe players to put their hands up and make selectors’ choices more difficult.
The end result was a mixed bag.
Mitchell Marsh was the only batter to substantially enhance his reputation, securing a trip to the UAE with strong performances batting at No.3.
Ben McDermott, who left England to join the squad in Australia before flying to St Lucia, and Josh Phillipe struggled to make any impact with the bat and more senior players such as Alex Carey and Moises Henriques fared little better, particularly against spin; all played themselves out of contention for the World Cup.
So it was only to be expected, with Australia’s vulnerabilities exposed when batting to spin on unfamiliar pitches, that selectors would turn to familiar faces.
The specialist batting batting stocks will undoubtedly be bolstered by the return to fitness of captain Aaron Finch (knee) and Steve Smith (elbow), and the availability of David Warner and Australia now know that, if needed, Marsh can seamlessly move up the order.
Ashton Agar’s offspin proved to be a fine foil for Adam Zampa, Mitchell Swepson chimed in with his legspin efficiently when given a chance and, with the return of Glenn Maxwell to the squad, several spin bases should be covered, not to mention the explosive batting that Maxwell provides.
As ever, Australia’s strength in fast bowling is undimmed with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson and Josh Hazlewood all selected, although the pitches could challenge the effectiveness of sheer pace.
Josh Inglis’ selection is, perhaps, the most interesting. His prodigious run-scoring for the Perth Scorchers in the BBL sparked interest and, with the benefit of hindsight, Australia’s plans may have been better served taking Inglis out of The Blast in England for the recent tour rather than McDermott.
“His performance, and not just in T20 but across all formats, has been really impressive over the last twelve months,” said Chief Selector George Bailey, speaking from Hobart.
“So there was a lot of challenges around the decisions around bringing guys back from playing in the UK and we'd spoken to Josh about playing in The Blast and hopefully The Hundred and continuing to push his case that way.
“In terms of our squad, we think he brings some great flexibility. He’s batted at the top but in terms of guys who had been at the top and shifted into the middle, or I think his transformation into a middle order player last year at the Scorchers was seamless. Really good player of spin,, provides a few different finishing abilities in terms of being able to play all around the ground, but also really powerful as well.
“So he's a really great all round player and I fully appreciate the ‘bolter’ look about it but certainly someone we've had our eye on for some time.”
Inglis is yet to prove himself at international level and the struggles of Phillipe and McDermott suggest the step up from BBL is a considerable one, especially in the high pressure environment of a World Cup.
But there are plenty of seasoned campaigners surrounding him, many of whom will be preparing for the tournament during the remainder of the suspended IPL which will function as a kind of prelude (a rather odd thing to say about the world’s biggest and richest cricket competition).
That is, of course, the frustrating way events have unfolded for Australia; unable to field a likely team in the ten matches played before their opening game against South Africa and unable to play together once their full complement of players become available.
“I absolutely have full trust that the IPL is good prep,” Bailey said, while jokingly noting Australia’s lack of control over how the players are used. “Throw a bit of faith in the franchises that they'll pick our players, that be great, so that they are getting those games and bat and bowl them in the exact roles that we'd like them to for the Australian team would be also great, but not sure we’ll get any say in that..”
The squad announcement emerged in the wake of speculation surrounding Justin Langer’s position as Head Coach.
CA were forced to issue a statement of support from CEO Nick Hockley after reports of an altercation between team manager Gavin Dovey and a CA digital journalist in Bangladesh.
As the story gained momentum, former Australia opener Adam Gilchrist called for CA to clarify Langer’s situation and Sydney Morning Herald Chief Cricket Writer, Malcolm Conn, wrote a searing column that painted an unflattering picture of Langer’s conduct as coach.
Australia can ill afford an uncomfortable environment during an intense high-pressure tournament, but Bailey doesn’t believe Langer has ‘lost the dressing room’, while pointing out players must take some responsibility for Australia’s mixed results in all three formats during his tenure.
“Make no mistake, regardless of everything that might have been said and written, the amount of respect that JL has, for both what he's done and what he is continuing to try and do with cricket in general and with this team, is huge,” Bailey said.
“There's no doubt there's been a few challenges over the last twelve months but, let's be realistic, there's been some challenges that that have been encompassing around some of the travel things and the tours and some of the results as well so I don't think this is unique to JL.
“Let's not put this all on Justin. As a group. If you look over the last twelve months I don't think the Australian cricket team, if you talk specifically about the T20 team or the other formats, I don't think we've quite played the best cricket or as certainly as good as I think we potentially could have.
“I don't know how often we will need to keep sort of harping on that. The focus for us is purely on the World Cup and the Ashes.
“If we perform well in those tournaments, you know these things tend to die away a little bit.”
It’s difficult to argue against such a point; winning does, after all, tend to silence any disquiet.
It now remains to be seen if this squad is up to the formidable task of turning recent form around when the World Cup arrives in October.
