George Bailey, Australia’s national selector, has backed all-rounder Glenn Maxwell to play the role of a frontline spinner for the team during the forthcoming ICC Cricket World Cup in India from October 5 to November 19. The five-time champions will lock horns against India in their tournament opener on October 8 in Chennai.
Given that Marnus Labuschagne’s leg spin has deteriorated recently and Steven Smith hardly bowls anymore, Maxwell and Adam Zampa are Australia’s only reliable spin options on their World Cup roster. Travis Head’s off-spin would be a useful alternative if he were to recover and be able to bowl. Notably, Head’s return has not yet been decided and it is unlikely that he will be able to participate in the early stages of the competition.
Bailey stated that it would be inappropriate to underestimate Maxwell’s successes in white-ball cricket. The 34-year-old has 64 wickets to his name from 129 games at an economy rate of 5.53. He recently achieved a career-best 4/40 against India in the third ODI of the three-match series at Rajkot.
“Think it’s unfair on Maxi to say he’s not a specialist spinner. Think his white-ball spinning record is pretty handy and you could very much consider him a frontline option. We certainly consider that we have two frontline spinners within our first-choice XI,” Bailey was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.
Bailey continued by saying that the team management believes that Australia‘s frontline spinners, Zampa and Maxwell, can do an excellent job and that there are still many choices for pacers and backup all-rounders.
“More broadly across the squad, when you are limited to 15 [players], there are compromises that you have to weigh up [and] which way to want to take a risk. That was all the considerations that we had to take. We certainly think that Zamps and Maxi can do a really good job for us as the frontline spinners and we’ve still got plenty of options for quicks and back-up allrounders,” he added.