Steve Smith among 20 players vying for a place in the Australian T20 World Cup squad

Two more games in New Zealand then the IPL will determine who makes the Australian T20 World Cup squad with a massive amount of names in the mix.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald isn’t convinced the “freedom” teams are batting with against his outfit recently will be as present at the T20 World Cup as he confirmed Steve Smith remains well and truly in the mix to remain part of the squad.

The Aussies became the first team ever to concede more than 200 runs in four consecutive T20s in Wellington this week, giving up 215 to the Kiwis after the West Indies blasted 627 from three matches in Australia.

But McDonald’s men won three of those four games, including Wednesday’s thrilling final-ball chase, having loaded up with power-hitters as part of World Cup experimentation.

Australian captain Mitch Marsh did conceded that “we don’t want to be chasing down 200-plus” too often.

Tournament play, however, could be different according to McDonald who said there was a big watch on how free teams would be in this year’s T20 World Cup, being hosted by the Windies in the Caribbean and USA.

“I think the surfaces, the venues, the size of the boundaries, there’s a lot of things to take into account when you’re scoring 200-plus,” McDonald said.

“The freedom with which teams are playing leading into a World Cup, there’s a little bit of ‘okay, how far can we push it as a batting unit, what sort of totals do we need?’.

“That brings about a freedom, but whether you see that in a World Cup, that type of freedom in a tournament play, will be interesting to see.

“At the moment, in the bilateral series, we’re seeing that and it makes for good, entertaining cricket.”

Australian coach Andrew McDonald . (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

Smith didn’t play in that opening clash with the Kiwis, and has played two T20 internationals in 15 months, increasing questions about his place in a line-up full of white-ball specialists.

But he’s going to play one of the two remaining games in New Zealand, and McDonald is adamant that the batting star has not been ruled out of World Cup calculations with “20 players in our thinking”.

That would include the 15 in New Zealand, as well as injured players Marcus Stoinis and Aaron Hardie, as well as boom batter Jake Fraser-McGurk.

“We’re not settled in terms of the final 15 at this stage and that’s why these games are really important,“ McDonald said.

“If he (Smith) wasn’t in our thinking then he wouldn’t be on the plane over here. We’re playing him for a reason.

“He’ll get some opportunity here, he had some opportunities in India at the back end of a World Cup and we were planning for him to play in South Africa as well going as far back as August-September (last year), but he unfortunately had a wrist injury at the time, so he missed those three one-dayers.

Steve Smith (Photo by Saeed KHAN / AFP) /

“But he’s definitely in the thoughts.

“We’ll probably play him in a slightly different role to what we’ve seen in previous World Cups in T20 cricket.

“He’s gone to the top of the order in recent times, so batting high up there’s still competition for places.

“I suppose that’s a good problem to have.”

“We’re not going to get to a final 11 as we sit here, but we’ll work through to a 15 and give ourselves as many options in that 15 to negate what the West Indies surfaces will challenge us with.”

Originally published as Steve Smith among 20 players vying for a place in the Australian T20 World Cup squad