Having suffered a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of India in the recently-concluded T20 series Down Under, it looks like Cricket Australia are all set to announce Steve Smith as the captain in all three formats of the game, with the right-hander replacing Aaron Finch in the shortest format of the game.
Finch has captained Australia in just six T20 matches in the past 17 months.
Cricket Australia are yet to make any official announcement. But the Board is set to announce a 15-man squad for the ICC World T20 2016 on Tuesday. Cricket Australia's official website reported that the announcement may come along with the squad announcement.
Selector Rod marsh has stated that Smith was already being considered as the captain of the Australia T20 squad, when the board had announced the T20 side for the India series.
"Those things are always considered, but at the moment Aaron is doing the job and doing it nicely," Marsh had said then.
Ever since the inception of the ICC World T20, Australia, who are the No.1 ODI team in the world, have not won this tournament. They will be desperate to send their best players for the ICC World T20 2016, so that they can bring the trophy home. Australia do not have a great record on Indian soil in the limited-overs formats, and that might be a cause of concern for CA.
On top of that, they have been pitted against India, New Zealand, Pakistan and one qualfying team -- most likely Bangladesh -- in their group in the upcoming World T20.
Therefore, they are trying to relieve Finch off the captaincy duties and help him focus on his batting at the top of the order. Finch recently sustained a hamstring injury during the T20 series against India, but is likely to be fit before the ICC World T20 2016.
