Spin-king Shane Warne on Tuesday, 9th April came up with his bold 15-man squad for Australia’s title defense in the upcoming 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup to be played from 30 May in England and Wales.
Warne, the Australian leg-spin legend and cricket expert, left in-form batsman Usman Khawaja out of his Australia squad for the World Cup 2019 despite the veteran batsman being leading run-scorer in the One Day International (ODI) cricket in the world in 2019 at the moment.
In the absence of regular opener David Warner due to ball-tampering scandal, Khawaja has done brilliant job with the willow in the white-ball cricket, as the left-hander scored 769 runs at an average of 59.15 in his last 13 ODIs and in the process, he became the equal third-fastest Australian to reach the landmark of 1,000 ODI runs in 27 innings.
Despite the incredible stats, the Victorian could not find a place in Warne's World Cup first XI -which went viral on social media in no time and Khawaja was trending on Twitter, as the cricket fans criticizing his omission, though, the Aussie great is yet to come with his clarification over the surprise exclusion.
Noteworthy, Warne was critical at Khawaja throughout the past two home summers, suggesting Australia's most experienced batsman lacked "intensity" and had "gone missing".
Meanwhile, in his Playing XI, Warner picked Warner and D'Arcy Short as his openers while Aaron Finch and Steve Smith as No.3 and 4 batters with Peter Handscomb at No.5 as his top order.
Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell have managed to grab the all-rounders place in Warne's World Cup XI, while his bowling attack has three pacemen in Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins with lone spinner Adam Zampa.
On the other hand, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Ashton Turner, and Nathan Coulter-Nile also managed to find themselves in Warne’s 15-man squad for the World Cup 2019.
Shane Warne's Australia World Cup XV:
First XI: David Warner, D'Arcy Short, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa
Extras: Shaun Marsh, Nathan Lyon, Ashton Turner, Nathan Coulter-Nile.
