West Indies: Following a massive eight-wicket win over the West Indies at Sabina Park, Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh spoke of the importance of building squad depth given the first string of players won’t be available for every game.
The Australian pace trio of Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins, who have racked up legendary numbers in the past decade, opted out of playing in the five-game T20I series following the 2-0 victory in the Test format in the West Indies.
The relatively inexperienced pace attack of Ben Dwarshuis and Nathan Ellis were included on the day where spinners ruled proceedings.
“We have a lot of talented players in Australia. We know those guys (Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins) won't be able to play all three formats all the time, so it is important to build the depth. International cricket is a step up, so make them (the youngsters) feel relaxed and ease them in, which we have done in the first two games.
Glenn Maxwell and Marsh failed to make much of an impact at the very top of the batting order for the visitors, however, Josh Inglis and Cameron Green's 131-run partnership, Australia’s highest for the 3rd wicket in T20Is, saw the visitors comfortably chase down the 173-run target with 28 balls to spare.
“We have a lot of talented players in Australia. We know those guys (Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins) won't be able to play all three formats all the time, so it is important to build the depth. International cricket is a step up, so make them (the youngsters) feel relaxed and ease them in, which we have done in the first two games.
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"He (Green) hasn't played a lot of T20 cricket for Australia, played Test cricket and is coming back to the T20 side, but he is a really important player for us. We dropped four catches today and need to work on that. The spinners were fantastic and made use of the conditions. And Inglis when batting like that, there are not many bowlers who can stop him,” he added.