If the selectors looked to the next rank of Australian T20 batting,they might have looked at the latest Big Bash League. The top-performing locals who scored more than 200 runs with a strike rate of more than 150 were Maxwell,Jake Weatherald,Chris Lynn,Fraser-McGurk and tournament top-scorer Matt Short (whose 542 runs at 60.11 with a strike rate of 153.25 were 180 runs more than the next highest scorer,making him the Cameron Bancroft of T20 cricket). Aaron Hardie scored 334 runs,at a strike rate of 127.96,and also had a bowling economy rate among the best in the league.

These players,Bailey said,“were all part of long conversations” and surely also journeys,deep dives,hot takes and circle-backs,but where they ultimately landed did not move the needle. Somebody spare us.

So what’s going on? Do the Australian selectors just not really enjoy selecting? Is omitting Smith their idea of looking to the future?

There’s an argument that experience trumps all other values,and under World Cup pressure,the only trusted players are the ones who’ve performed before. But there again,the brains trust can’t have been watching the IPL,where the atmosphere is brain-bleedingly intense,every match has the fervid atmosphere of a World Cup final,and the individual stakes are what cricketers really value:millions of dollars in contracts. It’s anything but hit-and-giggle. It’s almost ridiculously high pressure,and the biggest Australian stars in this biggest league have been Head,Cummins and Fraser-McGurk.

Another interpretation is that selectors get trapped in the mindset of a loyal race jockey who will ride their champion horse until it gives out. The champ might have one more campaign left. It’s an understandable mentality for the individuals who play,but very hard to understand for those off-field who have been entrusted with stewarding the present into the future. You look back,you stand still,you’re creating nothing but a hole.

One saving grace for Australia is that India,the putative World Cup favourites,have also sought shelter – or cover – behind big names. But even if Virat Kohli is past his peak,he still ranks second in IPL runs. India’s selection,while conservative,still includes four of the top 10 IPL run-scorers. (Australia’s best,Head,is 11th.)

At least India’s selectors (like England’s,like South Africa’s,like the West Indies’) give every appearance of having been watching and responding to the past five weeks of a new cricket revolution.

It’s hard to ignore,but Australia seem to have managed it. In ways that extend far beyond mere selections,franchise T20 cricket is tightening its hold and broadening its reach. Very soon,with EPL football as its model,this game will be a global entertainment product.

Australia,not just its selectors,are at risk of being stuck at the station after the train has left. Cricket is no longer a leisurely game played at a leisurely pace. It’s off and racing. Australian domestic tastes now represent a small,diminishing and insufficiently fanatical proportion of the cricket audience. It’s hard to credit,but many among us are stuck thinking this Twenty20 thing is a distasteful fad that we’ll accept for the moment while we wait it out.

The guardians of the Australian game,by risking nothing,are risking much. It’s not really about one tournament or one player. The rejection of youth is a symbol of one faction standing still while the world dashes into the future.

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