Australia’s stand-in T20I captain Josh Inglis opened up about the criticism over the management announcing a second string squad for the T20I series vs Pakistan. Inglis said that certain decisions are ‘above his pay-grade’ and highlighted that certain players were needed for the other format as well, looking at the scheduling. However, he did not find it fair to call the squad ‘Australia-B’ team. This comes after the first-choice players were not included in the T20I squad as they prepare for the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy series.
“I don’t think it’s very fair to say that, but we know how challenging the schedule is. There’s always series overlapping where players are used (in different) formats. There are decisions to be made. That’s above my pay grade, thankfully,” Inglis said ahead of the first T20I in Brisbane.
Australian team face backlash
Inglis was handed over the captaincy duties in the absence of Mitchell Marsh, who is currently on paternity leave. He captained the ODI side in the 3rd match vs Pakistan, which the hosts lost by 8 wickets. Pakistan won the series decider as they clinched an ODI series victory on Australian soil after 22 years. Inglis admitted that Australia’s batting did not perform well in ODIs and aimed to correct the errors in the shortest format of the game.
“There were big losses, and typically not something that we’re very used to. You’ve got to be honest, that batting group didn’t score enough runs and that’s on us to rectify that this week,” Inglis said in the same interview.
The Australian team faced backlash for resting key players in the final ODI vs Pakistan. However, Inglis said that Australia are not taking Pakistan lightly and realise that they are a good side.
“Everyone’s got their methods and how they go about it. It’s just about bringing them up this week, and let’s forget about what’s happened before. Just attack it head on and keep backing yourself âæ (but) we’ve seen how good a side this (Pakistan) team is and we don’t take any team we come against lightly,” he added.
Australia’s T20I squad
Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
