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Australia announced its Playing XI for the first T20 International against West Indies, to be held at Sabina Park in Jamaica on Monday.
While Mitchell Owen is set to make his international debut, Matthew Short is ruled out of the series due to a minor side strain and has been sent back to Australia.
Jake Fraser-McGurk will take Short’s place in the team as opener. Fraser-McGurk, who has struggled for form of late in international cricket, had been added to the squad as a replacement for injured pacer Spencer Johnson.
With Australia resting a host of senior players, including Travis Head and the pace trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, the series will provide an opportunity to finetune the squad ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup next year.
“First and foremost, it’s always ‘we’re representing Australia, we’re here to win the series’ and culturally, that’s how we want to go about it. There will be guys that get opportunities. We’ve obviously got a few guys missing for this series (for) a well-earned rest. But we want guys to be flexible, fluid, and come together as a team and be really connected. We don’t want anyone to come in here and feel like they have to prove themselves. We’ve really got a strong squad,” Australia T20I captain Mitchell Marsh said while talking to cricket.com.au.
Australia XI for the first T20I: Mitchell Marsh (c), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Josh Inglis (wk), Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa.
