Australia has announced their World T20 Squad. Steve Smith will lead Australia in ICC World T20 2016 in India and Meg Lanning will lead the women’s team. In a turn of fortunes, the Aussie selectors decided to hand the T20I captainship to Steven Smith, who will take over from Aaron Finch, who led Australia in the series against India, which Australia lost 3-0. India has also announced their world t20 squad.
Steven Smith to lead Australia in the 2016 World T20 in India
Smith, who leads Australia in Tests and One Day internationals, now becomes the captain in all the 3 formats. Along with Smith being made captain, the Australian chief selector, Rod Marsh also announced that Adam Zampa, Peter Nevill and Ashton Agar were included in the team for the World T20 in India and will make their debuts in the tournament.
Australia Squad for T20 World Cup 2016:
Australia T20 World Cup Squad: Steve Smith (capt), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill (wk), Andrew Tye, Shane Watson, Adam Zampa
This meant that Matthew Wade, Nathan Lyon and Cameron Boyce all missed the plane to India, despite being featured in the playing XI against India recently. Marsh also made it clear that Finch had to prove his fitness before the team departs for the tournament. Along with Finch, fast bowler Coulter-Nile and James Faulkner also have to prove fitness as both of them are battling injuries to shoulder and hamstring respectively.
Speaking of the selection of Peter Nevill as the keeper in the squad, Marsh said, “We feel our batting depth in this squad is sufficient enough that we can have a specialist wicket-keeper in the squad,” Marsh continued. “We want Australia’s best wicket-keeper playing in this tournament and we consider Peter Nevill to be the best in the country right now.”
Brad Haddin welcomed the inclusion of Nevill in the team in place of Wade, who is seen more of a batsman in the team and Cameron Bancroft’s debut against India now is seen as a one-off experiment by the selectors. Same cannot be said about Nathan Lyon and Cameron Boyce, who are unlucky to miss out. Boyce has been the chosen spinner in the last 7 matches and Lyon, who is the leading spinner in Tests, made his long-awaited T20I debut.
Adam Zampa was chosen after his successful Big Bash performance and has been also included in the ODI team against New Zealand to check his skills. With slow turning pitches in India, Australia now has Agar, Zampa and Maxwell to help them out in conditions that are suited for spinners.
Along with the men’s team, Australia also announced the Women’s squad for the ICC Women’s World T20, which will be played alongside the men’s tournament in India.
Australia Women’s squad for World t20: Meg Lanning (capt), Alex Blackwell, Kristen Beams, Lauren Cheatle, Sarah Coyte, Rene Farrell, Holly Ferling, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy (wk) Jess Jonassen, Beth Mooney, Erin Osborne, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Elyse Villani.
