Australia has announced its preliminary 18-member squad for the upcoming World Cup 2023, which features the five-match ODI series against South Africa and the three-match ODI series against India.
Nathan Ellis appeals call-up for World Cup Squad
Nathan Ellis is placed in the 18-member squad for the ODI World Cup. With the likes of Ellis and Sean Abbott, only one of them will be placed in the 15-member squad.
Nathan was impressive in the second match against South Africa where he scalped three wickets for 25 runs. It includes a double-wicket maiden over in the first over, to take 18 wickets in seven outings with an average of 9.11 and an economy of 6.30.
Ellis is known as one of the most impressive bowlers particularly in death overs and holds an outstanding T20I record. But he was sidelined at regular intervals of time. He missed last year’s T20 World Cup in Australia.
He opened up the selection criteria where his selection remains a possibility. He said, “It’s something that I’ve… not struggled with, [but] you sort of have to try and become accustomed to,” he said. “I haven’t played consecutive games and have got one game here, one game there, so it’s definitely easy to fall into the mindset of ‘this is my only chance’ or ‘this could be my last chance’, that sort of thing.
“So for me, one, trying to get that mentality out of my mind is a challenge, and two, I’m just trying to do the best I can any time I wear the colors. I’m under no illusions that at the current stage I’m not in the first XI, so it’s taking the opportunities when they come and doing the best I can and keep throwing my hat in the ring for selection.”
“In T20 cricket, it’s very easy to get pigeon-holed in certain roles and I’ve been spoken about as a death bowler for a little while now,” he said. “So a big goal for me was… trying to make an impact in the powerplay, so to do that last night was obviously really great.”
“It’s definitely something I have had to think about,” he said. “I’ve had a little bit of red-ball experience with [Tasmania] and it’s something I really love doing and I’ve done okay… but on the flip side, all my opportunities for Australia have been on the white-ball set-up so it has been kind of hard to balance the two.
“You add the physical element of trying to get back to Tassie and play [Sheffield] Shield cricket, you can’t really just go back after playing T20 tournaments and go straight into a Shield game, so it becomes more of a physical conversation, and a risk-reward conversation.
“For me, my opportunity is white-ball cricket for Australia so I sort of feel, at the moment with the World Cups coming up in the next year or 18 months, put all my eggs in the white-ball basket currently then when the opportunity to play red-ball cricket arises, if it makes sense, it makes sense,” he concluded.
On the other hand Sean Abbott said, “It’s awesome bowling alongside Nathan. It’s no surprise he’s come into the national side and performed the way that he has. The numbers speak for themselves.
“More often than not he goes out and executes really well. Typically we see that when we need to be defensive at the back-end with the death bowling, but he showed that tonight in his first over, presenting the seam and hitting the top of the stumps.
“I’m really enjoying my time bowling with Nathan because he’s been hard to get away from when we’ve come up against each other in the Big Bash.”
They will be playing their third T20I match against South Africa on September 3. Following the conclusion of the ODI series against South Africa, Australia will be playing a three-match ODI series against India.
Australia will be playing their first match of the World Cup 2023 against India on October 8 at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
