When Marcus Stoinis was removed from the Cricket Australia contract for the 2024-25 season, it would’ve been natural for him to think of it as an end. It was a futuristic outlook from the board, but the 34-year-old had no qualms whatsoever. He simply accepted the fate while admitting his desire to contribute to Australia in the 2024 T20 World Cup. 

Similarly, at the start of the year, when he was removed from Australia’s first bilateral ODI squad after the World Cup, against West Indies, it made “complete sense” to him as he felt Aaron Hardie needed “to be exposed in international cricket”. If you think we could’ve expected a similar whole-hearted response from any other cricketer, from any other nation, please be more realistic.

Stoinis doesn’t conform to traditional insecurities. Instead, he builds his empire on the standing of his own talent – like gifting Australia a landslide victory against Oman after a brief hiccup at the beginning. He has created a decent body of work to take pride in and be sure that opportunities for him won’t dry down.

Australia were 50/3 in 8.3 overs when Stoinis joined hands with David Warner on a typically sluggish Bridgetown wicket. Powered by Mehran Khan, Oman already had a dream start, but what they didn’t know was the Hulk carnage that was waiting in the wings.

It was not like Stoinis went bang-bang right from the outset, but instead, he took his time and understood the individual abilities of Aqib Ilyas and Mehran. He understood how Ilyas’ leg break was ricocheting off the surface and how Mehran’s seam-up deliveries were orchestrating an opera of its own. Figuring it out was the key before launching an attack the latter would remember for a long time.

The eventual acceleration came in the 15th over when Stoinis sent Mehran out of the park four times within a space of five deliveries before handing out an almost similar result to Kaleemullah in the 19th over when he hit a couple more sixes. From the relative obscurity, Australia were comfortably placed at 164 in 20 overs. Stoinis contributed 67 of those runs off just 36 deliveries. 

That’s not all that Stoinis did in the game. The Western Australian was responsible for the early Oman carnage with the ball and didn’t let the Asian team have any partnership up front. If anything, he was magic with the ball in his first two overs to dismiss Oman’s two most dependable batters, Aqib Ilyas and Zeeshan Maqsood. That slammed all doors on Oman if anything were open at that moment at all.

With his all-round performance, Stoinis has proven yet again why he is such a valuable commodity for Australia in limited-overs cricket and why trading him out so soon may not be the best idea. 

The current Cricket Australia contract runs till June 30 and the already-announced deal will be in place from July 1. Stoinis has already declined a Western Australia contract to devote more time to the life of a freelance cricketer while still being available for domestic and international commitments, but this should also incite a deeper introspection for Geroge Bailey and his team. Losing Stoinis will not do any good to their aspirations of winning the Champions Trophy 2025.

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