Australia: Australia has announced the squad of 15 Men who will travel to England and Wales to represent Australia in the World Cup 2019.
Australian side will be pumped up by the return of Warner-Smith, who was out of the side because of Ball-Tempering Scandal. 2018 was a disastrous year for them as they lost most of their series which they had played. But 2019 brought some great news for them.
They first defeated India in t20s and ODIs in their home soil and then white-washed Pakistan in UAE. The in-form batsmen Usman Khwaja and Glenn Maxwell finally got the ticket for World Cup while Shaun Marsh got a well deserved World Cup ticket.
Khawaja, who was called in the squad in the absence of Warner-Smith showed great character throughout the year. But he got the attention of the viewers when he scored 383 runs in 5 match series against India and won the man of the series award. He also made 272 runs in UAE with 3 half centuries. Australian Captain Aaron Finch who was struggling since 2018 finally got his form back by hitting scintillating 451 runs in 5 match series against Pakistan in UAE.
The biggest shocker from the Squad was the exclusion of Peter Handscomb and Josh Hazelwood. Handscomb looked in tremendous form in 2019 and scored valuable runs for his team in recently concluded India tour. His 117 in Mohali was one of the greatest innings by a visiting batsman. He was the third highest run-getter of the series with 236 runs under his belt Although, he didn’t get enough chances in Pakistan series as the Top Order was doing a tremendous job for their team.
Meanwhile, Hazelwood has been dropped since he was injured from Januar Wand selectors don’t want to take any chances with Ashes will also on the cards. It is to believe that it will commence after the World Cup. So keeping that in mind they prefer Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jhye Richardson.
Two all-rounders for Australia will be Stoinis and Maxwell with Coulter Nile at the lower order.
AUSTRALIA’S 15 MEN SQUAD FOR THE WORLD CUP
Aaron Finch (captain), Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa