New Delhi: Shane Warne, the Australian cricket legend, on Tuesday picked his hypothetical Australian squad of fifteen players for the upcoming World Cup. “My squad of 15, Warner, Short, Finch, Smith, Maxwell, Stoinis, Carey, Cummins, Starc, Richardson J (if fit), Zampa plus Marsh S, N Lyon, A Turner, Coulter-Nile thoughts followers? Agree?,” he posted on his Twitter account.
The spinner was seen making a bold move of not including the opener Usman Khwaja in the World Cup squad. Khwaja is the world’s leading run-scorer in ODI format in 2019. The left-hander Khawaja has scored 769 runs in 13 matches with an average of 59.15, in the process becoming the joint-fastest Australian to 1,000 ODI runs in 27 innings.
Warne also named Darcy Short in his playing XI for the World Cup. Short has worked under him at Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Short played four ODI’s for Australia between June and November last year but has since been overlooked.
Shane Warne’s Australia World Cup 15: (First XI) David Warner, D’Arcy Short, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa. (Extras) Shaun Marsh, Nathan Lyon, Ashton Turner, Nathan Coulter-Nile.
Australia takes on England and Sri Lanka in the warm-up fixtures before the World Cup on May 25 and 27. Australia will play against Afghanistan in their opening fixture of the World Cup on June 1.