Mitchell Marsh awarded Australia contract, Marcus Stoinis, Usman Khawaja among 6 axed

There were some shocking exclusions from Cricket Australia’s list of 20 nationally contracted players on Thursday as the likes of Marcus Stoinis, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, among others were missing from the core group of Australian players. While all-rounder Mitchell Marsh found his way back to the centrally contracted players’ list, his elder brother Shaun was axed from the list. 

The Australian national selectors picked a group of players loaded with limited-overs talent in a bid to reflect on Australia’s forthcoming schedule including the ICC T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in October-November.

"With many of the squad crossing into all three formats it gives us the benefit of being able to add in specialists depending on the opposition and the conditions," chief selector Trevor Hohns said in a statement.

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"The depth of this squad and the success of the past 12 months gives us that solid base."

The likes of Nathan Coulter-Nile and Marcus Harris were also missing from Australia’s centrally contracted players’ list.

"As is always the case there are unlucky omissions but, however, because you are not on the list does not mean you cannot be selected to represent Australia," Hohns said.

While Mitch Marsh found his name on the list after his omission from it last year as Hohns said "he has a lot of international cricket ahead of him as a batting all-rounder".

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Australia’s young maestro Marnus Labuschagne was among the new faces along with Joe Burns, Ashton Agar, Kane Richardson and Matthew Wade with Hohns heaping praise on all of the latest inductees.

"Marnus's rise has been meteoric and well documented," Hohns said.

"Joe has been a good Test match player, Ashton Agar's form in T20 internationals has been exceptional, while Kane Richardson has been outstanding in the T20 and one-day games."

Australia contracted players: Ashton Agar, Joe Burns, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, James Pattinson, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.