Maxi the wickie? It's a T20 World Cup 'possibility'

9h ago Jack Paynter

Australia will head to next month's ICC T20 showpiece without a reserve 'keeper after loading up on spin and allrounders

Australia's preference to load up on spin and all-round options for the T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka could see Glenn Maxwell keep wicket should injury or illness befall Josh Inglis during the tournament.

For the first time in three men's World Cups, Australian selectors haven't named a reserve wicketkeeper for the ICC's T20 showpiece beginning next month, instead opting for left-arm spinners Matt Kuhnemann and allrounder Cooper Connolly to complement Adam Zampa.

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Selectors leaned heavily towards providing skipper Mitch Marsh with enough bowling options in anticipation of turning conditions in Sri Lanka, where Australia will play their first four games of the tournament (two in Colombo followed by two in Kandy). Off-spinning allrounders Maxwell and Matt Short were also picked in the 15-man squad announced on January 1.

With the biennial tournament this time split across two countries, pace allrounders Cameron Green and Marcus Stoinis round out the bowling options alongside four frontline quicks (Xavier Bartlett, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Ellis).

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Should Australia secure a top two spot in Group B and qualify for the Super Eight stage, they will then head to India for matches in Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi, venues where they picked just one specialist spinner (Zampa) en route to their stunning ODI World Cup triumph in 2023, which was the last global men's event staged in India.

"The tricky bit (was) … to nail down a 15 and try to work out a squad (for) across two countries, across what we expect will be a pretty vast variety of conditions – you can get spin-heavy and beautiful batting wickets as well," selection chair George Bailey said today.

"What we like in the team is flexibility and adaptability and we've tried to explore that with using guys in some different positions.

"So (we're) not fully structured up and can adapt on the fly if we need to, and if we do happen to have moving parts, it's not a massive restructure to throw a whole team around."

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Inglis was the reserve gloveman to Matthew Wade during the last T20 World Cup in 2024 and started as the back-up for the 50-over tournament in India the year before, but took over the No.1 role when Alex Carey was dropped after the first game.

The West Australian 'keeper was also initially part of the 2022 T20 World Cup squad on home soil until he was replaced by Green after suffering a severe cut to his hand playing golf in the lead up to the tournament. That was the last time Australia didn't have a reserve gloveman in their squad for an ICC tournament.

Maxwell was a back-up option then as well and spent time practicing his keeping at training when Wade tested positive for Covid ahead of their ultimately washed-out clash with England.

Inglis was the sole specialist wicketkeeper during Australia's T20 tour of West Indies last year with batter Jake Fraser-McGurk the unused fill-in for the series.

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Australia can replace Inglis in their squad with ICC approval should his tournament end prematurely, in which case Alex Carey and Josh Philippe would be the likely candidates having both featured when the 30-year-old was injured last year.

But it becomes a trickier proposition replacing Inglis if the injury is short-term or occurs on the day of a match, with only players in the official 15-man squad able to participate in ICC tournaments.

Bailey said Maxwell taking the gloves was "one of the possibilities" when quizzed on such a scenario on Saturday in Sydney ahead of the fifth Ashes Test.

The Victorian hasn't kept wicket in his 15-year professional career but performed the role in junior cricket and a one-off match for an Australian six-a-side team at the 2009 Hong Kong Sixes.

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"I've seen him do it," Bailey said.

"He's a natural; he did it when he was younger.

"We've been in World Cups with one player (short) in positions. It always feels like you've got to give up something.

"It's the balance of those sort of day-to-day injuries where a player might just be missing for one (game) versus a more serious injury, and then how long that is, and can you carry someone?"

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It's an opportunity cost that highlights a gradual separation between the batting role wicketkeepers perform domestically compared to the one they'd be required to play in the national T20 side.

The two keepers next in line – Carey and Philippe – have traditionally batted at the top in T20 cricket, positions occupied for the foreseeable future by skipper Marsh and Travis Head in Australia's team.

Meanwhile, Hobart Hurricanes' gloveman Wade has retired from international cricket, Adelaide Strikers just dropped Harry Nielsen for bits-and-parts 'keeper Mackenzie Harvey for their last match, and with Inglis travelling with the Test squad this summer, half of the remaining six Big Bash teams (Perth Scorchers, Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder) have overseas wicketkeepers this season.

That leaves Melbourne Stars' Sam Harper who also opens the batting, Jimmy Peirson who has been in and out of Brisbane Heat's team in recent times and Philippe, who has shifted to first-drop for Sydney Sixers in KFC BBL|15 having also batted in the middle-order for Australia during his two white-ball appearances earlier this summer.

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Bailey said the need for their wicketkeepers to be adaptable was something states and Big Bash teams were aware of, but selectors would never mandate they play a particular position.

"That's a really tricky one because you don't want a player to play out of position of where they perform," he said.

"There's two ways that can happen; we can create some for some exposure. Mitch Owen, we used him through the middle a little bit, and Josh Philippe, he batted in a different position when he came back into the national setup recently.

"And then you might find that some players will start to do it naturally, because they can see an opportunity and the state or franchise and the player might come up with that.

"But … if we were to mandate that's where they play and then actually it's not their best spot to play, I think that's unfair on the player."

2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa