Legendary Australian cricketer Mike Hussey is confident that the controversial duo of Steve Smith and David Warner, will be a part of the Australian squad for the World Cup 2019, scheduled to take place in England.
The Australian Cricket team has slipped to the 6th spot in ODI rankings, their lowest in 34 years. With the World Cup in a years’ time, these are not good signs for the five-time champions. In their ongoing ODI series against England, they have already conceded the biggest defeat by a team in an ODI match (by 242 runs) at the hands of their hosts. They have lost the series by 4-0 and still have one match to go where the English will be looking for a whitewash.
Their humiliating performance is mainly because they are missing their key players, namely, Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh.
Warner and Smith, who are under a 12 month ban for ball tampering, will be eligible to play by March next year. Even though the world cup starts in June, Australia does not have any match scheduled during that period which is a concern, according to Hussey.
Hussey believes Smith and Warner will walk in straight to the Australian World Cup squad, given their quality and the experience at the big stage.
"It's hard to say so far out, but the quality of players they are you probably would say they are (a part of the World Cup squad). As long as they do everything right in the lead up; they're in good touch skills-wise, they're in good fitness, no injury concerns and they've done all the right things preparation-wise and behavioral-wise as well, then you'd have to think they'd come straight back in because they're such quality players.”
Though they are banned to play for their country, the players will not be out of touch as they will be a part of Global T20 Canada League and also the Darwin Cricket League.
One thing that kept Hussey worried was impact that Smith and Warner would have on the team, after returning from such a long ban.
"It is not a long time away and that's the one thing that does concern me. Leading into a World Cup year, you want to have continuity with your team, you want to get the guys playing together, getting the understanding, the communication out in the middle, knowing their roles very well and feeling comfortable around each other. We're going to have some quality players coming back in but they're not going to have much time to really build that continuity and communication between the group," Hussey told the Unplayable Podcast.
Lack of proper leadership is another aspect that worries the legend. He accepted that Tim Paine is not the long-term solution for the team as a captain. The pressure is even affecting his performance. He said that they need to look at a better batsman-wicketkeeper option.
According to the former Aussie opener, left-handed batsman Alex Carey is a good option to replace Tim Paine in the Australian playing XI.
"I don't think we should be picking players just because they're good leaders. We need to pick the best players and hopefully they've got that cultural base in place that whoever comes in, they just know exactly what's expected of them from a behavioral point of view and what the culture of the team demands of them as well,” he added.
"We need to be looking at who's in our best team and the best players to play in that team. I'm not sure in 12 months' time Tim Paine will be there because if you think Alex Carey is a better one-day option, you're better off getting him in there sooner rather than later, if the selectors think he's a better one-day option."
Commenting on Aaron Finch’s shift in batting order, he said that though he is a good opener, he has performed well in the middle order in the Indian Premier League and that’s what they are trying to exploit by making him bat in the middle order. However, this has not worked out too well for them as Finch is not able to perform well.
However, he reckons Aaron Finch should be Australia’s first choice at the top.