Glenn Maxwell has impressed everyone with his recent form and also bid for a national recall. However, the spotlight will be on Steve Smith and David Warner when they will announce the squads for the tour of South Africa. The national selectors to include George Bailey to select the squads for the three-match Twenty20 series and as many one-day series starting later this month.
Coach Justin Langer will also return, after a break when Australia toured India last month. Along with this, this will be Steve Smith and Warner’s first trip to South Africa since the infamous ball-tampering scandal took place. The third T20I game will take place in Cape Town as well. Following that incident, Smith and Warner have faced year-long bans as well.
Glenn Maxwell, on the other hand, did pretty well to return to the side, having been named in the Big Bash League team of the tournament, with a whopping 389 runs at 43.22 for the Melbourne Stars before the Thursday’s nail-biting final against Sydney Thunder at the MCG.
Earlier, he had taken a break from the game in October to deal with his mental health issues. However, he returned after some time for Big Bash League where not just his batting but his off-spin and fielding was praiseworthy. Although he was not named in the recent one-day series in India because of a poor form earlier in the 2019 World Cup.
Alongside him, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has also done exceptionally well. He also dropped from the ODI team post World Cup. However, he is the highest run-getter in the BBL, with 612 runs at 55.63, including a record unbeaten 147 against the Sydney Sixers. However, in 14 T20I innings, he has only scored 136 runs at 15.11.
Pace bowlers Sean Abbott, Jhye Richardson, and Daniel Sams have also done well in the BBL but Australia will choose their pace attack that includes Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson and spinners Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar. However, it will be interesting to see who makes it to the squad for the upcoming series.
