Australia are scheduled to host Pakistan for a white-ball tour starting next week. The tour, which will see both teams playing three One-day internationals followed by as many T20I games, will culminate on November 18, just four days before Australia are set to play a five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.
Keeping that in view, Cricket Australia (CA) has decided to rest main players including Mitchell Marsh, Travis Head, and Pat Cummins among others for the T20I part of the tour.
George Bailey, Australia’s chief selector, said that the players will meet for the first time in a while for training before the opening Test, so the team has been divided into two groups to avoid any ‘messy’ situations and crossovers during preparations.
“They just cross over a little bit in terms of the preparation,” Bailey said while announcing the squad.
“The Test squad will be arriving in Perth and sort of finalizing their Test prep around the time of that second T20. We’ve been really clear that we are prioritising the preparation for individuals around the Test summer and that’ll be the first time that we get that group together. So rather than switching guys in and out and it becoming quite messy, it was just deemed more appropriate for a number of reasons to separate them out.”
This means a group of youngsters will host Pakistan during the T20I series. Interestingly, Australia are yet to decide who will captain the team, as their regular captains will sit out. Glenn Maxwell, Adam Zampa, Aaron Hardie, and Josh Inglis are among the favorites to be announced the captain of the team since they boast captaincy and vice-captaincy experience in franchise cricket.
“I think there’s a number of players with the ability to captain and some that have had some captaincy experience as well. We will work through that.”
The squad is very similar to the one that toured Scotland in September before they played England. Bailey also said that splitting the team across both tours will provide the flexibility to move players to the Test squad if needed.
“You’ve just got to cover your bases in case you lose the wrong person at the wrong time,” Australian chief selector said. “If that does shift, we can get someone across to Perth, and their preparation would look a little bit different, but that’d be okay.”
The squad for the three-match ODI series was announced earlier. Led by Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, and Josh Hazlewood are part of the 14-member squad. Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh however, will not be joining the lineup, as both are on paternity leave. Apart from the pair, Cameron Green will miss out too as he has been sidelined for six months due to a back injury. This will be Australia’s last ODI tour before they fly to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy in 2025.
Australia’s T20I squad vs Pakistan: Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
