Australia chairman of selectors Trevor Hohns on Wednesday has said that he expects the players will choose the national duty over the lucrative T20 league – Indian Premier League which will resume mid-September if the tri-series with West Indies and Afghanistan takes place at the same time.
Meanwhile, the 18-member squad was announced on Wednesday for the white-ball series against West Indies and Bangladesh as well. And, Australia is hoping to host a T20 tri-series with West Indies and Afghanistan prior to the T20 World Cup which will take place in October-November.
“Around that time of the year, I would certainly hope so (that players forego the IPL for national representation),” Trevor Hohns was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au. “However, it will certainly depend on their commitments and what we think they should be committing to regarding their Australian commitments at that time. We haven’t looked at that yet and we haven’t heard from our players at this stage.”
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Meanwhile, seven cricketers — David Warner, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis and Daniel Sams — who were part of the now-concluded IPL have pulled out of the tours whereas Steve Smith has been rested as well.
Trevor Hohns further added: “That will be an interesting discussion for us, there’s no doubt about that, depending on performances in the West Indies particularly by some of the extra inclusions for this tour. If somebody were to really shoot the lights out with the bat or the ball, we’d have to stand up and take notice. It is concerning … but unfortunately we can’t. However, we’ve got at least half of our (first-choice) squad going to the West Indies and Bangladesh, so a core group will be there, and they will be able to play together.”
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“There may have been one or two positions up for grabs, but we virtually thought we were close to the mark or had a good idea of where we would be going with our T20 World Cup squad. We’re obviously disappointed they made themselves unavailable for this tour, but quite frankly we totally understand and respect their decisions,” Trevor Hohns concluded.
