NEWS
Follow UsThere aren’t too many top-order batters as destructive as Australia’s Jake Fraser-McGurk in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The young Australian has already demolished several bowling units, with 259 runs, striking at 233.3, where he has been finding boundaries with effortless ease.
So much so that there were demands from the outside world for Australia to take him to the upcoming global event in the Caribbean and the United States of America (USA). But the Australian selectors did not fall prey to the demands, leaving the in-form youngster out. Did that put off Fraser-McGurk?
"The communication was really good," Fraser-McGurk told the Willow Talk podcast.
"There's 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,” he added.
The real question for the selectors was where they would have fit the youngster in, considering the availability of all three top-order batters, David Warner, Travis Head, and Mitchell Marsh. Given that Fraser-McGurk hasn’t batted in the middle-order, it could have been a big gamble to play him out of position.
"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.
"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,” he added.
However, it isn’t the end of the world for the youngster, who might still be picked in Australia’s traveling reserves for the global event. Fraser-McGurk, though, attested that World Cup cricket can be a lot different from the IPL and franchise cricket, where he has had much of his success.
"If I do somehow get a travelling reserve [spot] then great, I can get a good experience there. It didn't really bother me a hell of a lot because I wasn't in this position to sort of feel like I've earned that yet. World Cup cricket is a lot different to IPL and franchise cricket."
