A key surprise in the 15-man squad was the inclusion of Nevill, who is yet to play limited-overs cricket for Australia, but he was preferred to Wade whose recent form with the gloves and bat prompted the change.
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The Australian cricket team is now in New Zealand to play three One-Day Internationals (ODI) and two Tests.
The decision to prioritise keeping skills over batting and back the country’s best gloveman Nevill to do the job in India shapes as a landmark call by chairman Rod Marsh and his panel that could spell the end of the road for error-prone Victorian Wade. “He will have benefited enormously from the leadership opportunity and will remain a highly-respected leader within the Australian squad”.
“We need Australia’s greatest wicket-keeper enjoying on this event and we contemplate Peter Nevill to be the flawless within the nation proper now”, he stated.
Disclosing the rationale behind naming Smith as the captain, Marsh stated that the move was aimed at maintaining continuity across all the three formats.
Aaron Finch, who sustained a hamstring injury during Australia 0-3 drubbing against India in a three-match T20 series and is fighting it out to make a comeback to the national side for ICC World T20, may no longer captain the team.
“Given the conditions we are likely to face in India we wanted to have a number of different spinning options available to us”. Australia have never won World T20, the only missing global silverware in their vast collection of trophies.
“Overall, we believe the squad we have selected is well-balanced and has the experience and talent required to be successful in India and help us win the World T20 title for the first time”, said Marsh.
Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa, both yet to represent Australia in T20 cricket, have also been included in the squad and they would be complemented by part-time off-spinner Glenn Maxwell.
Ricky Ponting, former World Cup winning Australian skipper, warned the newly appointed Twenty20 global skipper Steven Smith of the downside of leading the lead across all formats, saying that the added responsibility would only add to his burden.
“Aaron (Finch), Nathan (Coulter-Nile) and James (Faulkner) are all very important players and we want them with to be a part of this World T20 campaign”.
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Women’s squad: 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. Find us on Facebook too!
