David Warner and Steve Smith’s IPL 2019 performance could pave way for World Cup 2019 selection

Warner and Smith will appear in BPL followed by IPL 2019 before the CWC 2019.

CA CEO Kevin Roberts | GettyAs per Kevin Roberts, CEO of Cricket Australia, performances of Steve Smith and David Warner in IPL 2019 will be vital for their selection in the Australian 2019 ICC World Cup squad.

We’ll obviously take their form in those tournaments into account, so that will be important to watch,” Roberts was quoted as saying by ABC Radio.

Both Smith and Warner will be competing in the Bangladesh Premier League followed by the Indian Premier League in the coming year. “There’s got to be consistency, fairness, and justice in our selection criteria and so that’s our focus on making the road as smooth as possible,” he added.

Both Smith and Warner’s year-long bans will come to an end in March 2019, which were handed to them for their roles in the ball tampering scandal in South Africa this year.

Steve Smith and David Warner were retained by their respective franchises in IPL for 2019 editionFrom what I hear around the traps, there are no concerns with the form of Steve and Dave, so it’s just a matter of that continuing out in the middle as opposed to in the nets. And us assessing that, and communicating with them as frequently as possible over these next few months,” Roberts said.

Both Cameron Bancroft and Smith, in recent interviews, clarified that it was former vice-captain Warner who instigated the ill-fated ball tampering incident in Cape Town. But their statements garnered severe criticism from former Australian players and officials.

I don’t really know. But I think what’s important is our commitment to that integration process, working with the three sanctioned players. Making sure that we’ve got selection criteria that are the same for all players, whether they are the sanctioned players or not,” the CA chief said.

Roberts praised Warner for handling the situation graciously.

I spoke to Dave on Christmas Eve, or just prior to Christmas, but having spoken to him since the interviews I think Dave’s to be commended for his maturity and the way that he’s handling the situation at the moment, and of course our approach is the same with all three players,” he said.

(with PTI inputs)

 
 

By Jatin Sharma - 28 Dec, 2018

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