Mitchell Marsh has been named as the skipper of Australia's 15-member squad for the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2024. Steve Smith is a notable absentee as the selectors have picked batters who can accelerate at a brisk run rate.
Smith's T20I numbers do not make for a wonderful reading and hence there's no surprise that the selectors have decided to look beyond him. The right-handed batter has scored 1094 runs in 67 T20Is at a strike rate of 125.45 with five half-centuries.
Another notable absentee is the young batting sensation Jake Fraser-McGurk. Fraser-McGurk is going through a purple patch in the ongoing 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Fraser-McGurk has scored 259 runs in six games at a strike rate of 233.33 for Delhi Capitals and has played quite a few match-winning innings for them.
"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," Marsh was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au.
"We have had some strong success in recent times and I am hopeful that will continue in what looks like a wide-open tournament."
The chief of the Men's Selection Panel, George Bailey, admitted that it is not the end of the road for those who have missed out on selection as teams have until May 25 to make changes to their provisional squad.
"Being constrained to a squad of 15 for World Cups is always a challenge given the different scenarios and options we'd like to cover," Bailey mentioned.
"We will continue monitoring several players who have missed out on this preliminary squad and note that if we wish to change this squad, we have the option to do so over the coming weeks in accordance with ICC regulations," he added.
Australia's T20 World Cup 2024 squad:
Mitchell Marsh (c), 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.
