T20 WC: Marsh to lead 15-man Australian squad; Smith, Fraser-McGurk left out

Melbourne, May 1 (IANS) Mitchell Marsh has been appointed captain of the Australian men’s T20 team and will lead the side at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, starting on June 1 in the West Indies and USA.
Marsh will be leading a strong 15-member squad, excluding batter Steve Smith, young gun Jake Fraser-McGurk, experienced seamer Jason Behrendorff and all-rounder Matt Short.While Marsh has been performing the role of interim captain of Australia’s T20I side for much of the last 12 months, the T20 World Cup will be his first major tournament as skipper.”It’s been an immense privilege to play for my country and now an even greater honour to lead the squad to a World Cup. I am extremely grateful to have such a good group of people in our players and staff. We have had some strong success in recent times and I am hopeful that will continue in what looks like a wide-open tournament.”We take a very experienced group to the West Indies, I very much look forward to the challenge and working alongside Andrew (McDonald), the coaches, players and staff,” said Marsh.The squad also features Ashton Agar and Cameron Green, both of whom have been absent from international T20