Australia are likely to name two travelling reserves for the T20 World Cup with Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matthew Short expected to be named as the 16th and 17th squad members. They will head to West Indies and the USA as cover in case of an injury to one of the
first-choice 15 players
.

Australia’s chairman of selectors George Bailey had initially suggested that they would carry just one reserve to the tournament when the provisional squad was announced, but they are expected to add a second with the in-form Fraser-McGurk set to be named alongside Short.

Australia have however elected not to add a third spinner as a travelling reserve. Legspinner Tanveer Sangha had been kept as a reserve during the ODI World Cup last year but this time Ashton Agar is included in the 15 member squad.

Sangha is also reportedly dealing with a hip flexor issue and therefore wasn’t in contention this time around. Matthew Kuhnemann trained with Australia’s non-IPL players in the two camps held over the past fortnight but is yet to play a T20I for Australia despite playing Test and ODI cricket.

Fraser-McGurk’s omission had caused a stir
given his stunning IPL form with Delhi Capitals. He has yet to make his T20I debut and has only played two ODIs for the country. As per the selectors, he was not selected on the basis that Australia have an established top-three in David Warner, Travis Head and captain Mitchell Marsh. The selectors felt they needed players with more versatility to fill roles outside these first-choice XI. So, Fraser-McGurk will likely come into the squad if one of the top three gets injured during the tournament.

Short also didn’t make the cut despite featuring in nine of Australia’s last 14 T20Is and occupying multiple batting roles. The BBL player of the tournament opened in five games but batted at No. 3 once and No. 6 twice as Australia looked to build middle-order depth. The part-time offspinner only bowled in four of those matches including an over in the powerplay in three of them. He can come in as cover for different roles in the squad.

Australia’s squad members who are not involved in the last week of the IPL will fly to the Caribbean on Thursday for a training camp in Trinidad. There the Aussies will play two practice matches against Namibia and West Indies on 28 and 30 May respectively. However, bulk of Australia’s T20 World Cup squad members – Travis Head, Cameron Green, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell are all engaged in IPL commitments.

A number of Australia’s players including, Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Ashton Agar, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa, Matthew Wade, Nathan Ellis and Josh Inglis have either played no or very little cricket recently.