AUS ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 squad: Warner, Smith return at expense of in-form players

The return of David Warner and Steve Smith was highly expected and and it didn’t surprise anyone as Australia named them in their 15-man squad for the ICC ODI World Cup 2019. But the omission of Peter Handscomb, Ashton Turner and Josh Hazzlewood has raised plenty of eyebrows.

Smith and Warner return to international cricket

Steve Smith and David Warner are returning to international cricket after serving a one year ban as both were found guilty in the ball tampering incident last year.

The Australian duo is currently playing in the Indian Premier League. Smith hasn’t looked at his bet in the tournament but Warner is in tremendous form as he is the leading run scorer with 400 runs and five fifty plus scores in seven innings.

Handscomb, Hazzlewood miss out

Peter Handscomb played a vital part in Australia’s eight match winning streak in ODIs in the recent times but the management has dropped him to accommodate Smith and Warner.

In the last 13 ODIs, Handscomb made three fifties and a hundred and yet this was not enough to book the flight for England.

Skipper Aaron Finch stated that Handscomb is obviously disappointed and everyone is disappointed for him. He admitted that there was going to be some really tough decisions and some really big tough calls to be made on the squad and unfortunately Pete was that one.

He noted that this shows the great strength of their group at the moment that they are leaving guys in really good form out.

Meanwhile Nathan Lyon is in the Australia squad as an additional spinner with Adam Zampa while Mitchell Starc makes into the squad with Hazzlewood missing out. Alex Carey is the de-facto wicket-keeper for Aussies.

Also check the uncapped player New Zeland named in their World Cup Squad

Australia’s squad for World Cup

Aaron Finch (capt), David Warner, Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa, Nathan Lyon