Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Andrew McDonald, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Marsh pose with the ODI World Cup trophy•ICC/Getty Images
McDonald was pressed on the age of Australia’s squad after in-form youngster Jake Fraser-McGurk was left out of the squad. Australia will only have one player in their squad under the age of 28, with Cameron Green set to turn 25 just before the tournament starts. Nathan Ellis, Tim David and Inglis are the only other players in the squad under the age of 30.
But the coach backed his senior players to deliver again on the big stage.
“There’s been a discussion around the age profile of our team in all formats,” McDonald said. “I’m a big believer in you don’t know when the end is going to be. And a lot of people write off those players just based around their age.
“We feel as though in the last 12 months in particular in the white-ball space we’ve given plenty of opportunities to other players. Have we gone back to the tried and tested in terms of World Cups and the performers that we know can perform on that stage? There’s no doubt about that. It’s players that have been there before and done it and are still in good form. And you look at David Warner in the last 15 games for Australia, his record is outstanding. Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, those players that are probably the elder statesman of the team are still performing at international level. And that goes a long way.”
Alex Malcolm is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo