(Cricket News) The new batting sensation from Australia, Fraser McGurk did made Australia’s selectors ponder a change to their T20 World Cup planning. McGurk in his maiden IPL season stunned everyone with his exceptional hitting and batting skills against the best in the world.
McGurk was a hot topic in the Australian selectors meeting for their final 15 at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup. He failed to make a place for himself in the squad. McGurk, however will be with Australia at the World Cup having been confirmed as one of their two traveling reserves alongside allrounder Matthew Short but will need a tournament-ending injury to play a role.
McGurk after an impressive summer, took IPL by storm where he played for the Delhi Capitals. Opening the innings, he scored with a strike rate of above 230. He hammered 330 runs in 9 innings, which included two 15-ball half centuries.
Despite of his unbelievable form he failed to make a cut as he was competing for a spot in Australia’s well-established top three of David Warner, Travis Head and captain Mitchell Marsh – and not providing an all-round option. He wasn’t named when the initial squad was picked, while Australia decided against making any changes ahead of the final deadline of May 25.
“There’s no doubt that he did turn our heads and he was a huge discussion when it come to the final 15,” head coach Andrew McDonald told SEN radio. “He was running hot and there’s no doubt he will run hot into the future.
“There’s no doubt what he did in the IPL, he lit it up, he’s an extraordinary talent and he’s going to give fans much delight across the journey. In discussing the 15-man squad, we needed to cover all bases in the way we wanted to play and there was a lot of building that went into that over a period of time.”
Fraser-McGurk has previously said how he was comfortable with not making the final squad.
“There’s two ways you can look at it. You can look at it through, ‘this is what I’ve done to prove my case,’ and then there’s also, ‘look, a month and a half ago I wasn’t even in the picture’,” he told the Willow Talk podcast. “If I do somehow get a travelling reserve [spot] then great, I can get a good experience there. It didn’t really bother me a hell of a lot because I wasn’t in this position to sort of feel like I’ve earned that yet. World Cup cricket is a lot different to IPL and franchise cricket.”
T20 World Cup 2024 Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matthew Short.
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