A five-nil drubbing of West Indies is only an early marker on the road to the 2026 T20 World Cup, yet it already feels as though the pieces of a serious Australian side are dropping into place. The selectors, though, will have a few awkward conversations in the next couple of months.
Cameron Green’s all-round game at No.4 earned him player-of-the-series honours. His mix of power and touch — he can either rebuild or launch, depending on the start — looks tailor-made for the role. In the middle order Mitchell Owen, fresh from league success as an opener, showed he can adapt, rattling up 125 runs at a strike rate above 190.
Tim David delivered the headline act: a 37-ball hundred from No.5, the fastest by an Australian in T20Is. Josh Inglis, meanwhile, settled in neatly at first drop, giving the batting unit a reassuring shape.
With the ball, Nathan Ellis strengthened an already compelling case for a permanent spot. On wickets where the scoring rate topped ten an over, he went at just 7.88 and repeatedly nailed the death overs. Ben Dwarshuis quietly supported, taking useful wickets with the new ball and at the back end.
“Depth is a privilege to have, and hopefully we can keep building on that,” Australia’s T20 captain, Mitchell Marsh, said afterwards. “We saw a lot of guys come in: Mitch Owen, I thought Cam Green was fantastic, Nathan Ellis, again, was outstanding. Everyone played their part. It’s going to be a good challenge for us, but we certainly will welcome a few blokes back in.”
Those blokes are likely to include Travis Head and Josh Hazlewood for the South Africa series in Darwin, starting 10 August. Matt Short could return too, fitness permitting. Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc remain on ice until the home summer, so any big calls on the pace attack are deferred. Even so, Ellis has probably booked himself a spot, whatever the pecking order looks like when the big names reappear.
“He’s been our go-to guy,” Green told ESPN’s Around The Wicket. “And I think he’s, real, real close to getting to that main team, if not in it. He’s the guy that we probably go to [in the] sixth over in the powerplay, we always know that’s so tough … I think he bowls three at the death for us, so he’s just doing all the hard roles. He seems to thrive in them. He’s got so many tricks up his sleeve, so we’re really pleased with how he’s going.”
Head’s likely return alongside Marsh means Glenn Maxwell should slide back into the engine room, where Owen now has a taste of international finishing. Marsh confirmed the experiment was deliberate: “In the last 12 months, [Owen has] done a lot of batting at the top of the order, but we wanted to give him that opportunity to play a finishing role and keep building out his game with guys like Travis Head coming back in,” he said. The captain added that Owen “was awesome” and “didn’t seem overawed by the occasion”.
Australia did not concede more than 39 runs in any final four-over block across the series — a small sample, but proof that their death-bowling plans held firm. And while Marsh himself had a quiet series with the bat, he is unlikely to fret; the captaincy sits comfortably on his shoulders, and his return to No.3 could yet unlock another gear.
For now, the numbers are encouraging and the options plentiful. In Marsh’s words, depth really is a privilege — and, at this stage of a World Cup cycle, a handy headache to have.
