“He has the tools to play well in those conditions” – Mark Taylor reckons leaving Steve Smith out from T20 World Cup 2024 squad was a wrong call

Former Australian skipper Mark Taylor believes not picking Steve Smith in the T20 World Cup squad was a wrong call by the Australian selectors. Smith is not known for his pyrotechnics in the T20I format and was left out of the T20I squad.

However, Taylor reckons Smith had the tools to play well in the difficult Caribbean and the USA conditions. Smith has scored 1094 runs in 67 T20I matches at an average of 24.86 and a strike rate of 125.46. But he is one of the most technically correct batters in Test cricket and knows how to bat in challenging conditions.

Meanwhile, Australia was knocked out of the T20 World Cup after they were stunned by Afghanistan and also lost to India by 24 runs in the Super 8 stage. The Mitchell Marsh-led team could not chase 149 runs against Afghanistan as their batters failed to deliver.

Speaking to Wide World of Sports, Mark Taylor said, “I still think Australia should have picked Steve Smith and I thought that when they first left him out of the squad. If you look at the Afghanistan game, when you get a slow, turning wicket as they did, I would want Steve Smith in my side. He has the tools to play well in those conditions more than most players in that Australian side, if not all of them.”

Taylor reckons Smith, who has a sound technique could have played well in the spin-friendly conditions.

“That’s where I think Australia missed out. Smith batting anywhere from four to seven would have been better than the players that we had on a slow, turning wicket. If you get those sorts of surfaces, you want players who are good batters and not just necessarily good hitters.”

On the other hand, Australia picked David Warner ahead of in-form Jake Fraser-McGurk. The young right-hander had scored 330 runs in nine matches at a stunning strike rate of 234.04 in IPL 2024 for Delhi Capitals.

“With the Fraser-McGurk and Warner thing, I think that was a 50/50 call. You could have gone either way and mounted a good case either way on who should play.”

Warner has now retired from all forms of the game.