Australian legend Shane Warne has selected his preferred playing XI for Australia in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
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After Australia’s one-sided loss against England, the mood in Australia is not so great. On 30 October 2021, England thrashed Australia by eight wickets in the T20 World Cup. Australia managed to score just 125 runs, whereas England chased it in just 11.4 overs.
Australia’s top-order has not been at their best, whereas the bowlers also struggled badly in the last game. For Australia, they will play their next game in an almost DO or DIE situation. There has been a flurry of opinions around changing Australia’s XI, and Shane Warne has now picked his preferred World Cup XI. He has certainly made some interesting calls.
Shane Warne selects Australia’s T20 World Cup XI
Drop Steve Smith for Mitchell Marsh
Shane Warne has heavily criticized the inclusion of Steve Smith in the team. He has urged the team to drop Smith, and play a hitter like Mitchell Marsh in the team.
“He (Smith) can’t even make it in four overseas players in the IPL, he doesn’t make it into any of those teams, his record isn’t great at T20.”
“Those days of T20 are gone with the big bats and the small boundaries. You’ve got to start bashing it. You just have to bash it and go into beast mode.”
“We’ve got that in Mitch Marsh, who I’d say is one of our best T20 players, I just don’t understand why he can’t play. For me, he has to play and bat in the powerplay and take advantage of only two players out.”
The form of Mitch Marsh has been great this season. He has been tremendous with the bat, whereas his bowling has been great as well.
Australia get home by four runs 👏
Mitchell Marsh the star of the day with bat and ball in a rollercoaster fourth T20I 🎢https://t.co/zCt5xIblV3 | #WIvAUS pic.twitter.com/nXAT7vaBWq
— ICC (@ICC) July 15, 2021
Play Maxwell in lower middle-order
Warne has bashed the idea of playing Maxi at the top-order. According to him, Maxwell can hit the spinners out of the park in the middle-overs. He wants Marcus Stoinis to be promoted.
“Maxwell – I think they got their strategy completely wrong. How Maxwell bats inside the powerplay against a fast, bouncy ball I don’t understand,” Warne added.
“He can be so destructive after the powerplay when they’ve got [Adil] Rashid, Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone when they’re going to bowl spin.”
Bowling combination and Josh Inglis
Warne wants Hazlewood to start the bowling for Australia, whereas Starc should stay away from doing it. Moreover, he wants Josh Inglis to be included in the team in place of Matthew Wade.
“I think [Josh] Hazlewood has got to open the bowling, I don’t want to see [Mitchell] Starc taking that first over anymore.”
“I think Josh Inglis has to come into the side and Matthew Wade has to be under pressure for his spot as well. In this short tournament, you can’t afford people out of touch.”
Shane Warne’s preferred XI
Apart from the inclusion of Mitch Marsh and Josh Inglis, Warne also wants the batting order of Australia to be adjusted accordingly.
Warne’s XI in preferred batting-order: Aaron Finch, David Warner, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa.
