Aaron Finch looks to form a 'solid base' of players ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2020
With the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 just 12 months away, the home captain Aaron Finch has revealed the Australian team's roadmap for the mega event. The skipper wants to form a solid base of 14-16 players ahead of the tournament so that the team can live up to expectations of the home fans.
Speaking to the reporters ahead of the first T20I against Sri Lanka, Finch said,
"We know what style we want to go with over the next 12 months, so I think that makes it a little bit clearer to be able to map out how you go about that. So I expect that to be a little bit smoother (than the World Cup lead-in), and obviously with form and injuries and stuff, the personnel can change."
Former Aussie skipper Steve Smith chimed in too, echoing Finch's sentiment that the marquee players will no longer be rested for the T20I series as Australia gears up to capture its maiden T20 World Cup.
Earlier, the board used to allow the players to skip T20Is and focus on the other two formats. The fact that Smith has not played a single T20I since the 2016 T20 World Cup shows how lightly the Aussies have dealt with the shortest format. But that won't be the case anymore.
"We've seen the T20 format over the years is probably the format where guys have rested a lot. And that will probably change leading into a World Cup I daresay," Smith said.
The Australian team management has initiated the planning process for the T20 World Cup, as they have opted to go for specialists instead of all-rounders.
After being left out of the T20I squad for the series against Pakistan and Sri Lanka, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had had a conversation with the chief selector Trevor Hohns. Though the Aussie T20I team does not need his services now, Stoinis remains positive and told the media,
"I had a brief conversation with 'Cracker' (selection panel chair Trevor Hohns) and he just said they're not going for an all-rounder in these T20 games coming up. They're coming up to a World Cup in about a year so they're going to mix and match a few things and try to figure out what their best balance is."
"I'm confident it will all settle by the time the World Cup comes around and hopefully my name is in there."
Finch had earlier revealed that Ashton Agar would be the team's premier all-rounder heading into the World Cup. It will be intriguing to see if Stoinis can make his return to the T20I team ahead of the global event.
Also see – T10 points table