A significant proportion of the players who were involved in Australia’s 2023 World Cup triumph and are also participating in the ongoing Twenty20 International series against India will terminate their stay in India and return to Australia. Steve Smith and Adam Zampa have reportedly returned home via flight prior to the third Twenty20 International in Guwahati. Tomorrow, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, and Glenn Maxwell will all return to their respective destinations.
Reinforcements have been designated by the Australian selectors for the athletes returning home. Ben McDermott and Josh Philippe have already joined the squad and will be available for the third Twenty20 International that takes place later today. Ben Dwarshuis and Chris Green, meanwhile, will join the squad prior to the fourth Twenty20 International in Raipur.
Travis Head, who was instrumental in Australia’s triumphant World Cup final days ago, and Tanveer Sangha, who was a traveling reserve for the World Cup squad, are the only members of the World Cup winning squad who will remain in India for the duration of the Twenty20 International series. However, Head has not yet appeared in the series.
Updated Australia T20I squad: Matthew Wade (c), Jason Behrendorff, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Chris Green, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Kane Richardson
The Test and ODI captain, Pat Cummins, was in attendance at the SCG, accompanied by Mitchell Starc and the World Cup trophy. In retrospect, he discussed the difficulty it is for players to participate in a series immediately following a lengthy tournament, citing the Twenty20 International series against India that began mere days after Australia won the World Cup.
“It’s been a busy few month. It’s still games for Australia and I think it’s great these tours do provide the opportunity for younger guys or guys who might not be in your first XI. Think they are still important tours where you’ll get a lot out of it but they’re humans, not robots, so putting everything into a World Cup, then playing a couple of days later probably don’t begrudge them if they aren’t 100%,” said Cummins.
