Failure in Bangladesh sees ‘future captain’ Carey axed

Only seven players from Australia’s Bangladesh tour made the cut for their World Cup squad as several players including Alex Carey, who is deemed to be the Aussie captain in the future, was dropped.

Bangladesh beat Australia 4-1 in the five-match twenty20 international series where the Aussies could barely compete bar the fourth match. The last match of the series saw Australia bowled out for 62, their lowest-ever T20I score.

And such a dismal performance has seen most of that squad miss out on the T20 World Cup in UAE and Oman later this year.

Even though stalwarts like Steven Smith, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Aaron Finch were missing, none of the Aussie batsmen but Mitchell Marsh, could score consistently in Bangladesh as they struggled against Australia struggled to play the Bangladesh spinners and the cutters from Mustafizur Rahman and Shoriful Islam. 

Alex Carey, who captained Australia in their one-day international series against West Indies just before the Bangladesh series, scored only 35 runs in five innings and lost his spot to youngster Josh Inglis.

Inglis has been praised by Australia chief selector George Bailey for his ability to play spin and that might be the key factor of picking him ahead of Carey, who struggled against the Bangladesh spinners on slow tracks.

Matthew Wade also had a poor run in the series as he scored only 42 runs but managed to make it to the global event.

All three spinners from the Bangladesh series made the cut as Ashton Agar, Mitchell Swepson, and Adam Zampa booked a flight to UAE and Oman.

Smith and Finch, who missed the Bangladesh series for different injuries, will be fit by the time the tournament arrives, and the latter will be leading them. Pat Cummins will be serving as his deputy.

Australia’s T20 World Cup squad 

Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins (vc), Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Dan Christian, Nathan Ellis, Daniel Sams