T20 World Cup 2021: Shane Warne Names His Best Australia Eleven; Leaves Out Steve Smith

Shane Warne picked his best Australia eleven for the T20 World Cup in the UAE. Interestingly, the legendary cricketers omitted star batsman Steve Smith from his side.

Australia will take on South Africa, England, West Indies, and two other teams who will qualify from Round 1, in the Super 12 stage starting October 23.

Shane Warne feels Marcus Stoinis should be batting at number 3 instead of Smith. Both Stoinis and Smith featured in just two matches during the UAE leg of IPL 2021 for the Delhi Capitals. While Smith was dropped due to the presence of Shreyas Iyer, Stoinis sustained an injury that kept him out for a couple of weeks.

Instead of Smith, Shane Warne reckons Australia should go with the in-form Josh Inglis, a leading run-scorer in the Vitality Blast for Leicestershire, which hammered 531 runs at 48.27 at a strike-rate of 175.82 including two centuries.

Mitchell Marsh is another all-rounder in Shane Warne’s eleven to support the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa.

The 52-year-old commentator believes one of Ashton Agar or Dan Christian should play as an additional all-rounder depending on the conditions; Christian, though, is not in the 15-man squad and is one of the three travelling reserves alongside Nathan Ellis and Daniel Sams.

Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, and Mitchell Swepson didn’t find a look in Shane Warne’s preferred line-up.

Shane Warne’s Australia XI for T20 World Cup:

Aaron Finch (capt), David Warner, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Dan Christian/Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Nathan Ellis/Kane Richardson/Josh Hazlewood

Wow, what a start to the @ICC #T20WorldCup ! My Aussie team would be

Finch
Warner
Stoinis
Maxwell
Inglis
Marsh M
Christian/Agar (depending on conditions)
Cummins
Starc
Zampa
Ellis/Richardson/Hazlewood (depending on conditions)

What would your Oz team be and who’s winning ?

— Shane Warne (@ShaneWarne) October 18, 2021

Australia will play two warm-up matches – against New Zealand and India on October 18 and 20, respectively.

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