George Bailey, Australia’s former limited-overs captain, has rubbished reports that he was planning to retire from Twenty20 Internationals.
According to a report on Fox Sports on Monday, Bailey had decided to call time on his T20I career after not being named in the playing XI for the one-off game against England, which Australia lost by five runs at Cardiff’s Sophia Gardens.
But, on Tuesday (September 1), a Cricket Australia spokesperson clarified, “George has spoken to the selectors and team management and stressed his desire to feature in the T20I squad in the future and to be part of the team that travels to the ICC World Twenty20 in India next year.
“The selectors and team management are fully supportive of that and now it’s up to George to put the performances on the board to give himself the best chance of selection.”
Bailey has played 28 T20Is, all of them as captain, since debuting against India in February 2012, scoring 470 runs at an average of 26.11 and a strike rate of 140.71. Interestingly, Bailey became only the second Australian to make his international debut as a captain after Dave Gregory in 1877.
He has also been a part of five Test matches and 58 One-Day Internationals.
Bailey, however, last appeared in a T20I in April 2014 against Bangladesh, and later stepped down from the leadership role in August 2014 citing a desire to focus on first-class cricket in order to make a mark in the longer format.
He subsequently opted out of the one-off T20I in the UAE against Pakistan and the following three-match series against South Africa, with Aaron Finch succeeding him as skipper.
Source:
http://www.wisdenindia.com/cricket-news/bailey-quitting-t20is-cricket-australia/178476