World Cup 2023: Unfair on Maxwell to not call him a specialist spinner, says chief selector George Bailey

Australia named their final 15 for the Cricket World Cup starting next week on the deadline day, opting for just one specialist spinner, Adam Zampa. With the showpiece event scheduled in India, missing out on an extra spinner looked like a mistake, but Australia chief selector George Bailey differs with this. As per him, having Glenn ‘The Big Show’ Maxwell as a frontline spinner alongside Zampa is enough for Aussies in this tournament.

Maxwell returned to playing competitive cricket for the first time in several months during the recently concluded ODI in Rajkot, picking his career-best four for 40. His spell propelled Australia to a 66-run win in the final game and urged Bailey to make last-minute changes in the final squad.

While injured Travis Head got picked despite being out with a broken left hand, Marnus Labuschagne's selection ahead of Ashton Agar in the team raised a few eyebrows, trimming down spin-bowling options in the team. Speaking to the media, Bailey noted that Maxwell will indeed play as a specialist spinner, and putting his name in another category than that would be unfair to him.

"Think it's unfair on Maxi to say he's not a specialist spinner," Bailey said. "Think his white-ball spinning record is pretty handy, and you could very much consider him a frontline option. We certainly consider that we have two frontline spinners within our first-choice XI.

"More broadly across the squad, when you are limited to 15 [players], there are compromises that you have to weigh up [and] which way to want to take a risk. That was all the considerations that we had to take. We certainly think that Zamps and Maxi can do a really good job for us as the frontline spinners, and we've still got plenty of options for quicks and backup allrounders," the chief selector added.

‘We understand the risk but Travis is important to us’

The rise of Travis Head, more of an all-format batter in the past few years, has yielded quite a few results for the Aussies, and Bailey is aware of that. Detailing on the risk the management took by picking an unfit player in the squad of several fit ones, Bailey said he understands the risk that comes with this call but also noted that Head is an important player to them.

"We were aware of the risk that if there is a setback at some point that it makes it really challenging for Trav, but he's a really important player for us," Bailey said.

"We'll be getting the information of how he's recovering as the bone starts to heel, but we'll clearly be able to see how we are progressing in the tournament and how that's working out as well. Those two will hopefully marry up at some point,” the head coach added.

Australia will open their World Cup campaign against hosts India on Sunday, October 8, in Chennai.

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