Aussie coach explains 'heavily discussed' omission
Australia coach Andrew McDonald has addressed the selection decisions for his T20 World Cup squad after boom youngster Jake Fraser-McGurk was left out of the squad.
The 22-year-old has taken the cricket world by storm in recent months, causing a stir with his talent in the BBL and IPL, along with making his ODI debut in February.
However, due to the long list of power-hitters available, Australia couldn’t find room for Fraser-McGurk and veteran Steve Smith.
Jake Fraser-McGurk was left out of the T20 World Cup squad.
Despite Smith missing out, the average age of the Aussie squad sits at 31.5, with Cameron Green the youngest player at 24.
Speaking from a pre-tournament camp in Brisbane, McDonald explained why his side decided to go with more experience considering their recent success at the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship.
“There’s been a discussion around the age profile of our team in all formats,” he said
“I’m a big believer in you don’t know when the end is going to be. And a lot of people write off those players just based around their age.
“We feel as though in the last 12 months in particular in the white-ball space we’ve given plenty of opportunities to other players. Have we gone back to the tried and tested in terms of World Cups and the performers that we know can perform on that stage? There’s no doubt about that.
“It’s players that have been there before and done it and are still in good form. And you look at David Warner in the last 15 games for Australia, his record is outstanding.
“Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, those players that are probably the elder statesman of the team are still performing at international level. That goes a long way.”
Despite his absence, McDonald did confirm Fraser-McGurk was “heavily discussed” around the selection table.
“There’s a lot of considerations around selections and your final squads. We feel as though we’ve got the balance to play many different styles of games and we’re not sure of what the conditions will present at the of the year in the West Indies so you’re hypothesizing around what that looks like but we feel as though we’ve got good coverage with the players we’ve picked in the squad,” he said.
“Obviously Steve’s unfortunately not there and Jake made a really nice case in the IPL, he pushed for a late position there was no doubt about that.
“He was heavily discussed and there were other players that were heavily discussed as well, Matt Short has been instrumental in the build up as well with some success in T20 level for Australia and we saw those players get exposure in India on the back of the World Cup and obviously in New Zealand as well.
“There was a lot of players putting their hands up and unfortunately you’ve got to shrink it into 15 and we feel like that 15 gives us all the ways we want to play.”
The Australian side will be captained by all-rounder Mitch Marsh, who comes into the World Cup under an injury cloud after he was ruled out of the IPL with a hamstring tear.
Marsh has been batting at the pre-tournament camp but is yet to roll the arm over.
McDonald is confident he’ll be right to go when Australia plays its first match against Oman on June 6.
“You probably won’t see him bowl in the next couple of weeks here,” he said.
“It’ll probably happen the week before we leave. And then he’ll be able to ramp that up when we’re over there.
“We’ll be able to cherry-pick the moments during the tournament where he’ll be useful with the ball.
“We’ve got some all-round depth in the squad, which gives us good coverage anyway.”
Despite the coach’s optimism, there was an admission Marsh’s recovery was “probably a little slower than expected”.
“But we’ve got plenty of time now that he has been ruled out the IPL,” he said.
“The first game is just short of a month away now. So ample time for him to get ready. But really positive to see the skipper on the park.”