Langer’s sympathy for Handscomb as Smith pips him

SYDNEY: Australia’s head coach Justin Langer has acknowledged how tough it was on Peter Handscomb to miss out on a spot in the ICC World Cup 2019 squad, but said that it was impossible to ignore "all-time great" Steven Smith.

It was the clearest indication of where the final call on Australia’s 15-man squad came, with the team’s recent upsurge in one-day form having created a logjam for batting positions. With Smith and David Warner both eligible to return following their bans, two of the players who featured on the successful India and Pakistan series had to be cut and the axe fell on Handscomb and Ashton Turner.

The latter is less of a surprise after he didn’t get a game against Pakistan - despite his thrilling 84 off 43 balls in Australia’s record run chase in Mohali - but Handscomb had been a steady presence in the middle order since his recall, averaging 43.54 across 13 matches including a maiden hundred in that same Mohali match.

He also brought a second string with his wicketkeeping, which could have provided back-up for Alex Carey, but in the end the selectors couldn’t squeeze him in with Smith penciled in to be the middle-order accumulator.

"Selection is always hard, there’s no doubt about that. It’s the toughest part of the job. It has been for as long as I’ve been coaching but certainly last Tuesday was really tough," Langer told RSN radio. "Pete is terribly stiff to miss out. He’s all class. I spoke to him yesterday. He’s literally all class. He’s another ripper.

"I can give you all the clichés, I can try to find some good reasons. But the truth is I can’t tell you how close he was to being selected. He played exactly the role that we talked about for the back end of the ODI summer and in India and the UAE. But we just felt that Steve Smith would play that same role and Steve Smith is one of the all-time greats of Australian cricket."

Smith and Warner will join the World Cup squad for a pre-tournament camp in Brisbane early next month, which includes three non-international matches against a second-string New Zealand XI.They will be followed by two warm-up matches in England.