Selection for T20 WC to be based on tours of WI, B’desh

Australia’s limited-overs skipper Aaron Finch has said that he would go by the performance of the players in the upcoming tours of West Indies and Bangladesh to select his squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, indicating that ‘absentees’ might find it tough to get back into the squad.

Finch had recently expressed his surprise over so many players pulling out of the upcoming tours of the West Indies and Bangladesh and said that “they would find it hard to justify going back and playing the second half of the Indian Premier League (in the UAE)”.

Seven Australian cricket stars, including Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner, had pulled out of their national team’s limited-overs tours of the two countries as Cricket Australia (CA) recently announced an 18-member squad. The other players to pull out from the tours were Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson and Kane Richardson.

Due to the pull-outs, Australia’s planning for the 2021 T20 World Cup has been significantly disrupted, which has led to recalls for Ben McDermott, Ashton Turner and Dan Christian and a maiden call-up for fast bowler Wes Agar.

“Playing cricket for Australia and doing well is the ultimate, in my opinion. So for guys to be on this tour (of West Indies) to get the first opportunity to put their hand up and take that spot is what it’s about. It’s tough to ignore really good international performances,” Finch told ESPNcricinfo.

“You have to go on current form. These conditions will be very similar to what we face in the T20 World Cup I imagine — especially St Lucia being used quite a lot and then Bangladesh being quite similar to India or UAE, wherever that (ICC T20 World Cup) lands (happens).”

The Australian contingent will take a chartered flight to the Caribbean on June 28 to play five T20Is in St. Lucia and three ODIs in Barbados. The squad will then head to Bangladesh for five T20Is in early August.

Australia’s national selector Trevor Hohns too has said that significant weight would be put behind performances over these two tours, indicating the absentees would find it difficult to get back into the squad for the ICC T20 World Cup.

“It (squad) could change a lot. You have to look to keep restructuring your side to gather more information,” Hohns had said.