Australia Challenged To 'Find A Way' To Fit Tim David Into The T20I Side

Australia is the reigning T20 World Cup champion and is undefeated in the T20 International series this year. However, there remains significant uncertainty over their team’s composition fewer than 100 days before the commencement of their home championship defence. How can Tim David be incorporated into a seasoned winning squad? 

David has played for Singapore, but he is qualified to represent Australia and is eager to do so. He has also met with Australia’s chairman of selectors, George Bailey. 

Tim David Is A Resource Too Important To Overlook: Shane Watson

Former Australia all-rounder Shane Watson, who was named Friday as the T20 World Cup trophy ambassador for the Australian event in 2022, thinks they must find a solution only because David is a resource that is too important to overlook. 

“I hadn’t seen much of him at all up until the IPL and seeing what he did there is something that I haven’t seen for a long time,” Watson said.

“For a young guy coming in and just dominating and just hitting the ball like I haven’t really seen in the past. So you just find a way. 

“It’s hard with Australia being the defending champions of the T20 World Cup. But with someone like that, the power that he has and the composure as well under pressure situations is something that’s very, very rare.” 

Watson got a close-up view of David during the last IPL while Watson was an assistant coach for Delhi Capitals. He saw him score 34 off 11 balls to help the Mumbai Indians beat the Capitals, who at one point required 65 off 31. The outcome means the Capitals didn’t make the playoffs. 

David helped Lancashire go to the last day of the Vitality Blast in England with his sustained strong play. In 15 innings, he has amassed 387 runs at a 180 strikeout-to-out ratio, including two incredible half-centuries.

Among those who have scored more than 200 runs in the competition, only Alex Hales (193.78) and Rilee Roussouw (189.17) have better strike rates, although both have only ever batted in the top three, whereas David has only ever batted higher than No.5 only two times. 

Tim David’s Time Will Come: Aaron Finch

David was not a candidate for Australia’s Sri Lankan trip, since the team was chosen before his run of success in the IPL’s second half. Since David has been brought up frequently over the past several months, Australia captain Aaron Finch thinks his moment will come sooner rather than later. 

“I think it’s important that that time will come for Tim,” Finch said. “He’s such a valuable asset. Guys with that much power who can bowl a few overs, are good in the field, they will slot into a lot of T20 sides.

So I think there’s going to be opportunities there no doubt, especially with the amount of cricket that’s going to be played over the next sort of three months until that World Cup starts.” 

Australia won’t play another T20I until September, when they will go to India for a quick 10-day series of three games. These matches are sandwiched between six home ODIs commencing in late August against Zimbabwe and New Zealand and five home T20Is beginning in early October against England and the West Indies before the World Cup warm-up matches. 

Given that the India series will be played in different circumstances from the World Cup and that both David Warner and Steven Smith will have significant Test workloads after the event, David’s chance may come on that trip to India. Warner and Smith are Australia’s only three-format batsmen. 

Although there is sometimes time for last-minute alterations, World Cup squads will likely need to be announced by mid-September, so Australia may need to make a decision quickly.

Tim David On The Fringe Of The Australian System Without A State Contract

David’s other peculiarity is that he is on the fringe of the Australian system without a state contract and has been committed to playing for St. Lucia Kings in the CPL, which runs through September. However, it is likely that he would forego that commitment if an opportunity for an international call-up presented itself. 

David did play one Marsh Cup game for Tasmania last season without a contract, and he did have a rookie deal with Western Australia for the 2018–19 season. Watson has openly questioned the possible drawbacks of selecting a player like David for Australia who is not a part of the state structure. 

The high-performance staff at Play Australia, though, does not view it as a problem at the present and is investigating methods to hire T20 experts in the future without making them forsake franchise cricket in order to stay bound to the domestic system.

David is the most recent case study, however, AJ Tye and Dan Christian have also recently been selected for Australia’s T20I team without a state contract. 

Also Read: Cricket Takes Over Melbourne As 100-day Countdown Begins To ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022