Smith, rising star snubbed as World Cup squad named

Modern great Steve Smith has been brutally axed from Australia's Twenty20 squad ahead of the World Cup.

The 34-year-old was in the T20 squad for February's tour of New Zealand, but has been dumped for the team's title defence in June.

Young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk has also been snubbed despite some strong performances in the Indian Premier League, where he was called on to replace David Warner as opening batter and whacked 84 from 27 for the Delhi Capitals.

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Australia has named a 15-player squad, including veteran Warner. The team has drawn Group B with old foe England, as well as Namibia, Scotland and Oman.

Spin-bowling all-rounder Ashton Agar has been recalled despite being dumped from Cricket Australia's contract list just weeks ago.

The Aussies won the last Twenty20 World Cup in 2022, and also hold the World Test Championship mace and the men's ODI crown.

Reigning Allan Border Medal winner Mitchell Marsh will captain the team again.

Speaking to media including Wide World of Sports on Wednesday, chairman of selectors George Bailey said Smith was on an extended list, but congestion at the top of the order meant there simply wasn't room for him.

"I think his best T20 work of late has come at the top of the order, and at the moment, we see that top order being really settled," Bailey said.

"I still think he's got an enormous amount of good cricket left ahead of him, across what formats, I think that's as much up for him to decide.

"I know he still loves playing T20 cricket – he's going to play some MLC later this year – so that's still an itch that he'd like to scratch.

"We've had a handful of players, probably more than some other countries, that have been multi-format for a long, long period of time, and it's natural that some of those will start to drop off."

In the statement announcing the squad, Bailey said Matt Short, Jason Behrendorff, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Xavier Bartlett and the in-form Fraser-McGurk "were all a part of long conversations".

"Being constrained to a squad of 15 for World Cups is always a challenge given the different scenarios and options we'd like to cover," the statement read.

"We will continue monitoring several players who have missed out on this preliminary squad and note that if we wish to change this squad, we have the option to do so over the coming weeks in accordance with ICC regulations.

"Ultimately the balance of the final 15 needs to provide the best chance of being successful in this campaign."

Australia can make alterations to the squad without ICC approval up to May 25.

AUSTRALIA'S T20 WORLD CUP SQUAD

Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.