Agar, Green in Australia’s Marsh-led World Cup squad

After leading the T20I squad on an interim basis for the past year, Mitchell Marsh has officially been named Australia’s captain for the T20 World Cup.

He leads a strong 15-member squad that features Ashton Agar and Cameron Green, both of whom haven’t played in the shortest format for Australia since late 2022.

There was no place in the squad for Steve Smith, who was part of the Australia side that played New Zealand as late as February 2024. It’s the first time Australia will be without Smith at a World Cup since 2014.

Squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

“It’s been an immense privilege to play for my country and now an even greater honour to lead the squad to a World Cup,” said Marsh. “We have had some strong success in recent times and I am hopeful that will continue in what looks like a wide-open tournament.”

Agar’s inclusion comes keeping in mind the slow conditions that could be on offer in the Caribbean. “It’s great to have Ashton Agar back into the squad following a spate of unfortunate and untimely injuries,” selection chief George Bailey said.

“We believe Ashton can play a critical role in this tournament along with Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Cam Green and Mitch Marsh in complementing our front-line attack options.”

On Marsh’s recovery, Bailey said: “[Marsh] is coming along pretty well, I think he starts batting again pretty shortly, obviously the build to bowling is probably going to look a little bit different, but again we’ve got some flexibility there. That will build in time, but he’ll certainly be fit and firing to play.”

Adam Zampa is the lone frontline spinner in the squad but he will have the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Agar to turn their arm over in tandem.

Green makes it to the squad ahead of the young and upcoming Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has lit the Indian Premier League with his attacking approach at the top of the order for Delhi Capitals. But Green offers more versatility to the squad with his ability to also bat in the middle-order.

“His form’s been great of late, which is fantastic, but the way we’re functioning at the top of the order with the three guys we’ve had there has been really strong as well,” Bailey said of Fraser-McGurk. “It certainly looks like the top of the order is where he’s best suited.

“We think we’ve got some other guys that have got some good flexibility around where they’ll bat … and we have had players perform in different batting roles to cover off any eventuality.”

For their top-order, Australia have reiterated their faith in David Warner and Travis Head. Bailey said Warner was still in a “fair bit of discomfort” but backed him to regain fitness ahead of the World Cup.

“No concern from the point of view,” Bailey said of Warner’s hand injury that’s kept him on the sidelines at the IPL. “I think it’s been clear that there’s no break, but it’s still causing him a fair bit of discomfort. So obviously we’ll monitor that. Hopefully, he can get back and play a couple more games in the IPL to finish off, but I think it’s just one of those ones, just some deep-seated bone bruising and just it’s gonna take a little bit of time.

“But I don’t think anyone’s going to been able to give him a really definitive answer on how long that’ll be.”

Matthew Wade and Josh Inglis are the two wicketkeepers in the squad whereas death-over specialist Nathan Ellis joins the pace troika of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.

Apart from Smith, Aaron Hardie, Matt Short, Xavier Bartlett, Jason Behrendorff and Spencer Johnson were the other players who were on selection fray but missed out.

“Being constrained to a squad of 15 for World Cups is always a challenge given the different scenarios and options we’d like to cover,” Bailey said. “We will continue monitoring several players who have missed out on this preliminary squad and note that if we wish to change this squad, we have the option to do so over the coming weeks in accordance with ICC regulations.”

Australia start their World Cup campaign against Oman in Barbados on June 6.