The senior Australian cricketers David Warner and Steven Smith are playing the ongoing IPL season to earn their World Cup opportunities. However, the former Australian opener Matthew Hayden believes that they are already in the World Cup squad and even their bad IPL performances can’t affect that.
David Warner and Steven Smith both have missed many top cricket matches in the last one year due to their one-year suspension for involving in the sandpaper gate incident in March 2018.
Apart from missing the one-year international and domestic cricket matches, they also missed the entire IPL 2018.
While the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is just more than two months away to begin, the IPL 2019 is likely going to be crucial for both these cricketers. The Cricket Australia (CA) members are likely to monitor their IPL 2019 performances closely before the World Cup team selection.
Talking about their IPL returns, Matthew Hayden told PTI, “It’s an opportunity for Warner and Smith to play some cricket. Otherwise, they were not playing any cricket.”
In IPL 2019, David Warner is playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), and Steven Smith is also set to play for Rajasthan Royals (RR). Meanwhile, the present Australian side has just started to pick their form in international cricket.
However, Matthew Hayden believes that the poor IPL performances can’t stop David Warner and Steve Smith to play in the upcoming World Cup.
The former Aussie opener added, “They are going to walk into the side. Even if they have a bad IPL, they are not going to be dropped from that World Cup side. They are in the WC squad.”
However, Matthew Hayden is expecting that both the senior Australian cricketers will utilise their full opportunities in IPL 2019.
Matthew Hayden about the workload management during IPL
The former Chennai Super Kings’ opener believes that the IPL provides an entirely different workload for the bowlers and batsmen.
He said, “I think it (IPL) will make a huge difference. For bowlers, the workload matters. For batters, there is no such thing called workload. You just keep batting, batting and batting and that helps your game.”
Matthew Hayden’s pitch expectations for the upcoming World Cup
England and Wales will host the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup from 30th May to 14th July. Matthew Hayden is expecting flat wickets mostly during the upcoming World Cup. However, he also feels that the northern English grounds will be the exception as those will put the challenging conditions during the World Cup.
He said,”The northern grounds in England will provide more difficult conditions. The wickets I believe will be very flat during the World Cup. At times, wickets should have a bit more in them.”
The five-time World Cup-winning team Australia will play the upcoming World Cup as the defending champions. Australia will begin their 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup journey on 1st June against Afghanistan at Bristol.