Langer explains Khawaja and Short omissions

Coach Justin Langer has cited the surfeit of talent among Australia's current batting stocks and the blueprint his team wants to take into their upcoming white-ball campaign in England as reasons for the exclusion of experienced duo Usman Khawaja and D'Arcy Short.

It's barely a year since Khawaja was a mainstay of Australia's ODI batting at No.3 for a majority of the 2019 ICC World Cup in the UK, before being injured in the final group game of that tournament ultimately won by England.

And it's not six months since Short was being earmarked as the team's designated middle-order 'finisher' after producing his most consistent international performances on the tour to South Africa immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic re-shaping the global sport landscape.

But neither left-hander will be among the extended squad of 21 that will assemble in Perth this weekend for quarantine isolation prior to their departure for England, where they will play three T20Is (in Southampton) and three ODIs (Manchester) in less than two weeks.

Langer today acknowledged both Khawaja and Short remain in the national selectors' thinking but are victims of the wealth of talent currently available as well as the revised strategy being taken into the men's team's first international outing since last March.

He signalled former skipper Steve Smith will remain at No.3, where he's batted in ODIs since the World Cup, behind openers Aaron Finch and David Warner with Marnus Labuschagne occupying four.

"The way we're going to set up our game plan at the moment, Uzzie (Khawaja) is competing with David Warner, Aaron Finch and Steve Smith at the top of the order," the national men's team coach and selector said.

"At the moment, our view is those guys are getting the nod ahead of him.

"Marnus is a bit different, he's batting at number four and got a hundred in his last game (against South Africa in March) and he's had an incredible twelve months.

"Ultimately Uzzie is competing against those top three at the moment and that’s why he’s missed out.

"I’m a massive fan of Usman Khawaja, he knows that and I’ve said that over and over.

"He had an incredible year last year in white-ball cricket, but unfortunately he has two guys in Steve Smith and David Warner who are coming back into the team and they have the spot at the moment."

Langer explained the exclusion of Short, who had played in Australia's four previous ODIs, was due to the return of fellow spin-bowling allrounder Glenn Maxwell after an extended absence due to personal reasons and an elbow injury that forced him out of the South Africa series.

It was during the short tour to South Africa earlier this year that ODI skipper Finch identified Short as a potential long-term option for the role of hard-hitting middle-order finisher that Maxwell has also filled in the recent past.

But Langer said Maxwell's effectiveness as a part-time spin option offered greater flexibility in a UK tour squad that also includes allrounders Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Ashton Agar.

"I saw him (Short) yesterday play a practice game here in Perth, he played really well again as he keeps doing," Langer said.

"He’s got the double chance, in the sense that he’s also competing at the top of the order which we know he can do.

"He does that really well in domestic cricket, but he’s competing again, like Uzzie, against those three I mentioned before.

"And we need some allrounders in the middle and at the moment he’s competing with Glenn Maxwell who has come back into the team.

"He's taken D’Arcy’s spot, mainly because we feel more confident getting overs out of Glenn Maxwell than we do out of Shorty in the middle overs.

"Shorty is really aware of that.

"He’s working very, very hard on his bowling.

"He’s had a pretty good run at it, batting in the middle, but Maxy got there.

"It just goes to show what depth we’ve got if we’ve leaving D’Arcy, Uzzie and (Test vice-captain) Travis Head out."