A couple of weeks before the start of the 5-match T20I series against New Zealand, Australia captain Aaron Finch has confirmed that highly-rated wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Philippe will make his Australia debut in the first T20I on February 22 at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.
Philippe will be rewarded with his international debut after his stunning performance in the recently-concluded Big Bash League (BBL) 2020-2021 – where he finished as the third-highest run-scorer with 508 runs at a strike rate of 149.41 to help Sydney Sixers retain their BBL title last week.
He also confirmed that the 23-year-old right-hander, who has played alongside Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL, will play for Australia at the top of the order against the Black Caps.
Finch told cricket.com.au: “The top three will be Matthew Wade, Philippe, and myself. Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) and Stoin (Marcus Stoinis), four and five, around that area. It's pretty simple I'd imagine. When you look at the squad list, Josh Philippe has been in great nick and it's great to see him playing well.”
The white-ball skipper further added, “Matty Wade, we know how dynamic he is along with Maxi. We're going to be flexible with that top order as well. If that means Wadey or myself or Josh, whoever bats at three, it'll be a great opportunity.”
He also pointed out how spending time in the IPL and talking with the likes of Kohli and De Villiers helped Philippe to take his game to next level.
Finch explained, “He's someone who has obviously got all the shots but he's starting to get to that point of his career - and I think a lot of that was on the back of having a couple of months of IPL where he spent a lot of time with AB (de Villers) and Virat (Kohli) talking about batting with myself (as well) - he's taken his game to a new level because he's just getting past that period when he's not hitting them well.
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When he's playing well it's lights out, it's brilliant. But just those days when he's not feeling 100 percent, he's getting through that little danger period and still having a big impact on the game which I think is so important in T20.”
Meanwhile, Australia is yet to win a T20 World Cup and Finch said “they will use this as a way to gather a lot of info leading up to that T20 World Cup, which means there might be a little bit of shuffling.”
He signed off, “But we'll try to stick closely to the guys playing their roles that they're accustomed to or where we'll see them in the future playing. The result is not the be-all and end-all. I think building up and finding information, finding different ways our team can structure up is almost more important.”
Australia squad for New Zealand T20Is:
Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D'Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.
(With ANI Inputs)
