On Monday David Warner and Steve Smith look set to make their unofficial international comebacks for Australia in a three-match 50-over series against New Zealand in Brisbane.
While this series barely has been publicised, Cricket.com.au have reported the three matches will be played in Brisbane on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Warner and Smith both have left their IPL teams part of the way through that tournament to link up with Australia’s World Cup squad for a training camp in Queensland.
It is more than 13 months since either of these superstars represented Australia, having been handed year-long bans for their roles in the ball tampering scandal in South Africa in March last year.
They will have the lowest-key possible returns in these unofficial ODIs against a drastically-understrength New Zealand squad missing 10 members of their 15-man World Cup squad.
The Kiwis will be without their four best ODI cricketers – gun swing bowler Trent Boult, and prolific batsmen Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill.
Boult is the world’s number two ranked ODI bowler, Taylor is the number three ranked ODI batsman, Williamson has 5,554 runs at 46 in this format, and Guptill owns 16 ODI tons.
New Zealand will also be missing all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme, opening bowler Tim Southee, express quick Lockie Ferguson, big hitter Colin Munro, and spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi, all of whom were picked in their 15-man World Cup squad.
Australia, meanwhile, should be at close to full-strength. Warner and Smith both will return in fine nick, with the former having ripped the IPL to shreds while the latter was solid for the Rajasthan Royals.
In a dominant display, Warner piled up 692 runs at 69 in the IPL, displaying phenomenal consistency to make nine scores of 50-plus from his 12 matches.
(Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images)
Smith, meanwhile, was far less dynamic but consistently played a handy anchor role for the Royals as he made 319 runs at 40.
Both batsmen will have benefited greatly from this heavy exposure to elite white ball bowlers ahead of the series against New Zealand.
Also impressive in the IPL was Australian batting all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who made 211 runs at 53, although he struggled with the ball, taking two wickets at 72 and giving up 8.7 runs per over.
Stoinis’ position in Australia’s starting XI for the World Cup must be uncertain given his very poor recent form in ODIs.
In his past 20 ODIs, the West Australian has averaged just 25 with the bat, at a very slow strike rate of 82, to go with a bowling average of 40.
The man who may be putting pressure on Stoinis to retain his starting spot is fellow batting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell’s good form with the ball could convince the selectors to try to get up to 10 overs out of him in the upcoming World Cup, just as they did with success in the 2015 version.
That would make Stoinis’ bowling surplus to requirements and open up a spot for Australia to play an extra specialist batsman. This could be appealing for Australia given the logjam of strong batting options. Warner and Smith have fantastic ODI records, while Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja and Shaun Marsh all have impressive recent form.
Maxwell played as Australia’s sole spinner in the last World Cup and had a sensational campaign, finishing in the Team of the Tournament. He then went largely unused with the ball under the captaincy of Smith but is now back bowling well after being shown faith by new skipper Finch.
(Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
In six matches in the Royal London One Day Cup, Maxwell has taken eight wickets at 37, with an excellent economy rate of 5.62 runs per over in what has been a high-scoring competition to date.
He has bowled almost nine overs per match in that tournament, helping him prepare for a big role with the ball in the World Cup. Maxwell also took 6-76 in his sole first-class match for Lancashire, underlining just how well he is bowling.
Stoinis will need to step up against New Zealand over the next week to cement his position in Australia’s starting XI. But the big news will be the comebacks of Smith and Warner.
New Zealand 50-over squad
Tom Latham (c), Todd Astle, Hamish Bennett, Tom Blundell, Doug Bracewell, Matt Henry, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Henry Nicholls, Seth Rance, Hamish Rutherford, Will Somerville, Blair Tickner, George Worker, Will Young.
Australia World Cup squad
Aaron Finch (c), Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
Water Car Engineer
Guest
Dude read the article again. Nowhere it has have suggested maxwell's place in team under pressure from stoinis. In fact it is other way around
Rob
Guest
Yet the Australian players were prepared to strike to get a bigger cut out of the games revenue? Shame that kids and junior sports are struggling to get numbers.
Peter Warrington
Guest
If you take Langer literally, they are thinking about: Warner Finch Khawaja Smith Marsh Maxwell Stoinis Carey Cummins Starc Zampa I guess with "all those century makers" an obsession of his. leave up to Maxi to tonk for the last 10 to make up for slower, century makers above him. either that, or we are treating the World Cup as warmup for the Ashes, and seriously considering recalling Smarshian.
Tony H
Roar Pro
Yeah... Except less funny.
Paul
Roar Guru
hi Dan, getting to number one is one thing and when England did so, it was based on batting that was far less "hit & miss" compared to the current lot. The gap between England at number one and the chasing pack used to be substantial, but is now down to only two points, which I'm guessing equates to maybe one or two games. The three reasons why they've come back to the pack is an underwhelming attack, some very indifferent batting, producing some very ordinary results against low ranked teams, By the way, are you and India running scared of each other? Since the World Cup in 2015, you've played them in 6 games and shared the results 3 all. Australia's played India more often in the past 4 months than England has in the past 4 years! The cracks are certainly starting to appear in the England team. I don't need to be told where the Cup's being hosted, I'm sure I'll be told if England doesn't win it.
Dan in Devon
Guest
You do realise the World Cup is in England? You might want to check their record there? How does a crash and burn team become no 1 in the world?
Zavjalova
Roar Rookie
Hitout against a first-grade club team
bowledover
Roar Rookie
This is funny. Like an episode of fawlty towers
Targa
Guest
From the NZ media: https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/cricket/cricket-world-cup/112417133/hamish-rutherford-a-rare-form-batsman-as-secondstring-black-caps-cross-tasman
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
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Raj
Guest
@Kopa, you still didn't seem to get the point, mate. The author never questioned Maxi's place in the team, though I understand why you might've misunderstood his intention. All he is saying is that if Maxi can deliver 10 overs, we probably don't need Stoinis for his Allround abilities, and might as well replace him with another batsman (not Maxi you see)
Paul
Roar Guru
Dan, how did England go in the West Indies. A drawn series against the 8th ranked team in ODI cricket where England made 2 huge scores (4 - 364 & 418) as well as 2 scores one of which was embarrassing ( 263 & 113). The clearly number one team in the world has an issue with it's batting which is part & parcel of the aggressive style it's chosen to adopt. Get away with it, great, but when it fails it does so pretty spectacularly, especially when the side doesn't have an attack to defend modest totals.
AREH
Roar Guru
Great summary - agree and hope that's the formula they go with, however I doubt it. The hints towards reviving the Warner/Finch combination with Khawaja dropping to 3 have been there. They seem to think Khawaja will seamlessly drop down to 3 and have the same impact. I hope he can, but all his best work in short formats has been at the top, and I agree that if he isn't allowed to flourish there, don't play him.
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
I've never been convinced that showing some form against lesser opponents is any sort of indication that a player is truly back on track. Seems like more of a wallpapering exercise that gets exposed once they're up against the big boys to me. Still, any form is better than no form I suppose.
AREH
Roar Guru
Australia's batting is no doubt capable of regular scores of 300+, but the reliance will be on the bowlers getting the job done.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Thats why it's better to read first what I have written. That's the thing I have refuted. Even if maxi wasn't bowling, his role in team is altogether different. That's the reason I have suggested if quick run is goal, NCN could be used as bowling all rounder rather than pure bowler. Stoinis in current form , as a batting all-rounder,is giving more runs with balls than he is scoring runs with bat. His ipl average that is mentioned in article is highly deceptive given he was not out in several occasions & his bowling was very poor except 1 occasion. I have seen all of his matches, didnt give me much confidence. Maxi , bowling or not, is altogether a different matter.
Tony H
Roar Pro
Kopa, Ronan is saying that Maxwell's form is indirectly applying pressure to Stoinis. If Maxwell wasn't bowling as well, keeping Stoinis in the team is a must, wheras a team that van get 10.overs out of Maxi, can afford to replace Stoinis with a more in form batsman.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Id say it will be Warner and Finch with khawaja at 3. Also makes the most of right left combos
Tony H
Roar Pro
How many world cups have they won?
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
IMO the team should be Finch Khawaja Smith Warner Maxwell Carey Stoinis/ NCN Cummins Starc Dorff Zampa