There are 20 Australian cricketers in the West Indies as World Cup preparations begin but all the real questions are about who isn’t there.
THERE’S at least four Australian stars who walk in to the best T20 line-up, who aren’t in the West Indies right now.
David Warner, Steve Smith, Pat Cummins and Glenn Maxwell decided not to go and captain Aaron Finch, who did make the trip to St Lucia, conceded “bubble fatigue” was the sole reason.
National selection boss Trevor Hohns declared all had put their spots on the line for one of the “replacement” players – who are with Finch and coach Justin Langer right now – to take.
But when it comes to the T20 World Cup, a trophy Australia has never won, does Wes Agar replacing Pat Cummins sound realistic ?
Australia will likely play 10 T20s and three ODIs against the West Indies then Bangladesh over the next month.
It’s the bulk of the team’s preparation for the World Cup, which will now be played in the United Arab Emirates.
On arrival in the West Indies, Finch conceded it was hardly ideal to leave four first-choice players behind – a number that is higher if you include Marcus Stoinis, who also opted out, and Marnus Labuschagne, who isn’t a “walk-up” T20 player for Australia, but is one of the best batsmen in the world and was starting to fire for Glamorgan in the UK T20 competition, before being forced into isolation after a Covid scare.
“In a perfect world you would have everyone available all of the time, but we have to understand guys are in different head spaces and some have had a really long time on the road away from family,” the skipper said.
“And what makes it so difficult at the moment is families can’t just jump on a plane and travel with the team.
“We’re going to have to manage players differently over however long this is the way cricket is.
“While, yes, it’s not the perfect preparation, we are not alone in that. It’s going to give us the perfect opportunity to continue to develop our depth, and find some more solutions and more ways of doing things.”
Out of opportunity, there can often be new success, too.
Being forced to go back to T20 veteran Dan Christian, for example – a proven winner around the world – could be the push selectors needed to reshape their thinking on how to win T20s at international level.
The game has become a specialised one, and Christian is a specialised player.
“It’s a chance to tinker … and give ourselves more options up our sleeve when we are planning the World Cup squad,” Finch said. “Trying to give ourselves more information and not being hamstrung by playing one style of cricket the whole time.
“If there’s a chance to gather some information along the way and maybe guys getting more of an opportunity, we’ll take that as it comes. First and foremost, it’s about winning.”
But getting cricket in to those players who decided against bubble life in the West Indies, and 14-days’ quarantine on the way home, remains something the Aussies need to address.
The postponed Indian Premier League will resume later this year, also in the UAE, before the World Cup.
Warner, Smith, Cummins, Maxwell and Stoinis all have IPL deals.
They would be walking a fine line in terms of respect from the cricketing public if they went back to India, having opted out of playing for their country.
Cummins has indicated he’s unlikely to return, and Finch said that probably would work against the World Cup pursuit anyway.
“Guys have shown with how difficult it is to be away in hubs and bubbles for a long period, that might be really challenging,” he said. “If guys are getting burnt out really quickly in bubbles and they go to IPL and you are trying to win a World Cup on the last day of that tournament, is that going to be too long away?”
But is no cricket for six months, which could be the lot for those not in the West Indies, too long away?
Could current form be the best form when it comes to the World Cup?
Could Agar indeed replace Cummins in a World Cup squad, or Christian really be the key man for a team looking to make a T20 breakthrough.
The tour of the West Indies won’t provide all those answers. But it will be a look in to the future.