Opener Jake Fraser-McGurk knows where he stands in the pecking order of Australia’s top-order stars and is prepared to bide his time and remain patient and wait for his chance to prove himself at a major ICC tournament.
The absence of Fraser-McGurk from Australia’s squad for next month’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup raised some eyebrows when it was announced last month, with the 22-year-old taking all before him with some outstanding form in the ongoing Indian Premier League competition.
Fraser-McGurk has 259 runs from six innings for the Delhi Capitals and his strike rate of 233.33 is the best of any player with more than 60 runs at the tournament, but Australia selectors opted for experience over youth when leaving the hard-hitting right-hander out of their squad for next month’s T20 World Cup in USA and the West Indies.
But Fraser-McGurk has no issue with his non-selection and knows his time to impress in Australia’s strong top order will come should he continue to perform.
“There are two ways you can look at it. You can look at it through, ‘This is what I’ve done to prove my case,’ and then there’s also, ‘Look, a month and a half ago I wasn’t even in the picture’. They (selectors) probably had a good idea of what (the squad) was a month and a half ago, trying to build that, how they can get the connection in that team,” Fraser-McGurk told the Willow Talk podcast.
“It’s also hard to fit in. You’ve got David Warner, our best opener ever in three formats. You’ve got Travis Head, who’s lighting it up over here (in the IPL) and has lit up for the past 18 months. And then Mitch Marsh is the same and he’s also the captain,” the Australian cricketer said.
“I can’t really see myself batting five or six because we’re pretty set there with Timmy David, Cam Green, those sort of blokes. So that’s the way I think about it. That’s fine. There’s hopefully going to be more time for that,” the right-hand batter added.
Fraser-McGurk has three matches remaining with Delhi at the IPL and the Ricky Ponting-coached franchise still has an outside chance of featuring in the knockout stages of the event should they win all their remaining contests.
The Australia youngster is keen to continue making runs for Delhi and put his name in the picture to travel to the USA and West Indies with his international teammates in a role as reserve batter.
“If I do somehow get a travelling reserve (spot) then great, I can get a good experience there. But (his omission) didn’t really bother me a hell of a lot because I wasn’t in this position to feel like I’ve earned that yet. World Cup cricket is a lot different to IPL and franchise cricket,” the 22-year-old player concluded.
Australia T20 World Cup 2024 squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.