Thursday, February 11, 2016

3 Uncapped Players Named in Australia's WT20 2016 Squad!

Australia picked three uncapped players as they announced their 15 man squad that will take part in the ICC WT20 2016 in India. They include wicket-keeper Peter Nevill, leg spinner Adam Zampa and left arm spinner Ashton Agar. Steve Smith will lead the Aussie team after he replaced Finch as captain in a move the Aussie selectors believed will provide continuity to the T20 team.

Matthew Wade, Nathan Lyon and Cameron Boyce were the players who were dropped for the mega event and it was a touch and go as far as the spinners were considered.

Nathan Lyon, the premier spinner for Australia in test matches was picked for the India T20 series bowling just one over for 15 runs in that series, but that was enough for the Aussie selectors to seal his fate. Cameron Boyce, in contrast must consider himself extremely unlucky and hard done by after he had put in decent T20 performances for Australia in the past two years including a splendid performance against India recently at Sydney, albeit in a losing cause. Phil Nevill, considered the best glove-man in Australia at the moment, was chosen ahead of both Matthew Wade who has only been average with his returns recently and Cameron Bancroft who was picked for the last T20 at Sydney against India where he made a hash of a simple Raina stumping which ultimately cost them the match.

Adam Zampa, the leg spinner was picked after a couple of decent outings against the Kiwi team in the Chappell-Hadlee ODI's while Agar was picked basically out of wilderness after he made a memorable debut against the English in the Ashes almost 3 years ago!

The strong point of this team, though, is their strong batting line up comprising of explosive and high impact batsmen like David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Shane Watson, Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell. Aaron Finch was also picked but he will have to prove his fitness ahead of the tournament. All-Rounders Mitch Marsh and James Faulkner (again subject to proving his fitness) will add strength and depth to the already burgeoning batting strength of this team.

In the pace department, Hastings, Hazlewood were picked after their good performances during the recent India and New Zealand matches while Nathan Coulter-Nile was also named in the squad but like Finch and Faulkner he too will have to pass a fitness test to be a certainty.

The strength of this Aussie side is how deep they bat and the number of Fantastico all-rounders at their disposal like Maxwell, Watson, Marsh and Faulkner but the biggest question that will make an impact on how their deep their campaign goes will probably depend on the ability of their batsmen to handle spin on Indian tracks after they visibly struggled against the Indian spinners in Australia. Also, they have gone for a green spin attack of themselves in Zampa and Agar who will have a lot on their plate and will have to be at their very best if Australia are to win a tournament they have never won before!

Australia ICC WT20 Squad: Steve Smith (Captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill (wk), Andrew Tye, Shane Watson, Adam Zampa

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

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