Australia is gearing up for a T20 shootout against the Lankans and Pakis late this month. CA says it wants to leave no stone unturned as it aims to win the only trophy not in its cabinet a year from now on home soil.
Who makes the side? Take a look at last year's BBL and who performed in the ODI WC and we get a clear idea who will be wearing the flash new T20 pyjamas.
Contenders are Aaron Finch, Chris Lynn, Steven Smith, Usman Khawaja, D'Arcy Short, Matt Wade, Marcus Stoinis, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Dave Warner, Ben McDermott, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Jason Behrendorff, Andrew Tye, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Ashton Turner, Ashton Agar, Nathan Lyon. 
Chris Lynn and Aaron Finch have the best all time BBL records. In the top 10 all timers is Cameron White, George Bailey, Shaun Marsh and Nic Maddinson. Presuming CA wants 15 in the squad:
Aaron Finch, Chris Lynn, D'Arcy Short,  Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Jason Behrendorff, Kane Richardson,  Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Ashton Turner.
I have Nic Maddinson, Ben McDermott, Jhye Richardson also in the mix.

Kinda feel this should be in the tour thread for Pak and SL... But who cares.

Smith doesn't belong in your t20 side. Warner does. So you have an issue from the get go. White, Marsh and Bailey - too late really. UNless you commit to nGeorge now through to the 2020 Wt20. Which maybe you should. He does kinda perform well under pressure tbh.

Zampa is your weak link. Long has been. The more you play him, the less chance you give everyone else. A selection head ache for the most astute selector really. Starc is an automatic pick for Wt20. Lynn should be there if he can field well. If not, your top order gets more interesting. Finch is captain, so he has to play, but he can bat anywhere well. 

Interesting selection headaches. Good luck. :)

Reluctantly I agree. Smithy is not a bash artist..Warner is. Hey I still want George in my lineup.. but do CA. He has always performed when we most needed him in the white ball formats. He also has the game to steady shud early wickets fall and then later shift gears.  Starc,Finch and Lynn (if fit) only certainties.
Cameron Boyce and Brad Hogg are both better BBL performers than Zampa.  Boyce has been under rated for mine. I have admired his composure under pressure. Second best economy of the slowies in BBL last. He just does not get the publicity needed to tweak the selector's minds.

I pretty much nailed the T20 squad just announced by CA. Paddles Steve Smith was picked. I guess even in 20 overs there is a need for consolidation and Smithy provides that. Short and Stoinis dropped. Stanlake was not in my first choice. But he, Kane Richo , Cummins and AJ Tye is about  the best attack we have in this format. Glad to see Ashton Agar as spin back up to Zampa. Even gladder to see Ben McDermott. This kid excites me. See him playing all formats at some stage. The Marsh bros can consider themselves unlucky. This Glenn Maxwell/CA bromance continues tho.

Squad Aaron Finch (capt), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Billy Stanlake, Mitchell Starc, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

It seems skewed to bowlers. Is that standard for T20?

Don’t mind me. I had a brain fail and thought McDermott was a bowler... :D

I would have played Mitch Marsh for Maxwell, and given Josh Phillipe a crack for Ashton Turner.

This is how one Cricinfo journo describes Josh Philippe.. have to agree word for word.

Josh Philippe has already caught the attention of Australian cricket followers with some dynamic performances. He made his first Shield hundred last season but his performances tailed off after the BBL and he was left out of the team at one stage. He seems best suited to the middle order and the only question is can he develop the consistency needed and learn to work up and down the gears depending on the different scenarios middle-order players face in first-class cricket. His talent is absolutely undeniable.

Philippe's situation is a prime example where the BBL break in the Shield season kills momentum for red ball cricketers. As the young West Aussie seems suited to white ball cricket he is a target for BBL franchises.. so plays both formats. It can not be easy to switch from one format..back and then back again and maintain form. 

Do you reckon the T20 would ruin him, then?

Yeah I think this is a huge blunder by CA. Smith is the best test batsman in the world, he is struggling in ODI, and he is bog ordinary at t20. 2017, he averaged near 40 in the IPL, huge average, you say, yes it is, SR 122. He cost his team games they should have won by taking them too deep and the run rate got out of control.

2019, averages nearly 40 again, this time sr, 116. Even slower. Look we have people wanting KW dropped from t20, and he isn't just our captain, or best fielder, he is putting up bestter t20 numbers than Smith in t20i and IPL. So I really think Smith is a weak selection right now. But - if anyone has the talent to to reassess and reinvent themselves, its Smithy. I just think being dropped would have motivated this sooner.

Warner is the cake, he long has not been a basher in odi and t20. He starts slow, and just gets faster and faster. He is the best timer of an innings I have repeatedly seen in t20. Yeah Bairstow was good last IPL, but Warner does it year in and year out. Just so consistent in t20. So Aus is presumably thinking something like, 

1 Finch 2 Warner 3 Smith 4 Maxwell/McDermott  6 Turner/Maxwell 5 Carey+

7 Agar/Zampa Kane 8 Starc 9 Billy 10 Tye 11 Kane

Hmmm. I think Maxwell should play as 6th bowler. And you are forced to play Agar else your batting is light at 7. NZ always stack the bowling in t20 when losing, I don't think it ends well. Teams really want a Andre Russel - but they're as rare as hen's teeth.

I’m assuming Stanlake would only play if they rested Cummins? Isn’t Cummins an automatic inclusion in all 3 formats? 

Cummins isnt famous for t20 or death bowling in odi. Tye, Richardson and Starc are. So no. 

When Cummins nails yorkers like Starc, Bumrah or Archer, then he is a 3 format player... Right now he is a length bowler like Steyn (who was never that flash at 20 (let alone odi) vs Bumrah, Archer or Mustafizur, let alone Malinga....

AJ Tye certainly cleaned up NSW in their first Marsh game against WA the other day. He has an international T20 strike rate of 14.8. Expensive though, 8.87. Guess that is to be expected if you are thrown the ball in the final overs. He has been less effective in ODIs with double the strike rate. And his first class SR from only 9 matches is double again at 62.9!

I am questioning Cummins inclusion too. You want specialist T20 bowlers..as you want specialist bats in this format. Reason Smithy is also out of place. The man plays tennis forehand smashes to short balls.. for heaven's sake.  Still these are warm up games not WC ones. I expect there will be changes before next October. Josh Philippe will be one. Not sure why Chris Lynn has been omitted.. but he is a must for the WC. Averages @32 from 162 domestic T20s but has only played 18 internationals.

CA got AJ and Kane Richardson selections spot on. Not seen sufficient of Stanlake for an opinion. I do know he can leak runs when off song. Doubt he will have much game time with Starc and the other duo ahead of him.

Me too but plenty of white ball stuff to be played before the T20 WC side is chosen. Maxwell is a CA protected species.

No. Like Paddles says he does not nail his yorker often. This has to be a T20 bowlers major weapon. Reason Starc is automatic pick in this format.. has the best yorker in the business. Perhaps out of he and Malinga.. but Starc's is 10ks quicker.

Would Stanlake be agile enough in the field, or am I being heightist?

Who has had the all time greatest Yorker in history? Apologies if this has been covered in other posts. :D

Wasim Akram perhaps?

Akram had a great yorker, but Younis's would regularly knock batsmen off their feet and bowl them he got so much reverse. Younis was deadly, 150k + hooping inswing  that started late. 

Garner was famous for his yorkers in the World Series glory days. Malinga of course. He has dropped 20km/h in pace, but he still has it on demand. Bumrah can nail them on demand - its the delivery that he started his entire career with. 

I certainly would not have wanted to have faced Akram at one end  and Younis at the other! Brett Lee could get a few to swing in at a fair rate of knots, too...

Lee leaked a lot of beamers and full tosses. Tbh. Younis is the one for me, but tv wasn't as good in Garner's era. Garner is highly rated, highly highly rated, but in the good tv era, I like Younis more than Maliga and Starc, but they're all pros. Starc put on a show in the WC pool game vs NZ of yorkers turning a near certain loss into a 1 wicket loss. It was a great display of yorker bowling - with no run rate pressure at all. He just kept knocking people over. Malinga, he has two dbl wicket hat tricks in intl cricket with yorkers. He is a master.

But Younis for me. If I wanted to parochial, watch Bond clean up Ponting and Gilchrist repeatedly. NZ has never had a bowler like Bond since, and with all due respect to Sir Paddles, maybe ever before even. Bond had a great yorker. 

So those are the people famous for it, Akram, Younis, Garner, Bond, Starc, Bumrah, Malinga. Younis was the one who made batsmen fall over the most. Bond did too. But Starc and Malinga would change matches with spells. But I don't rate Starc as a test bowler. A top order test batsman will block a yorker when not needing to score quickly. Younis would knock over a block happy Atherton. Thommo had a great yorker. And I expect to see Archer in these names before too long. Notice one thing, Malinga - used to have pace, but now he clearly doesn't. But he is the only medium bowler in this discussion. Its that side arm action that keeps him going.

You mean like these ones?!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SFJqCC0FwWE

Yeah, just like those ones.... :) lol Thanks for that video, his career was bitter sweet for kiwi's. We knew we had something special, but so rarely playing for us :(

That 153km to Ganguly, he never picks it up. I barely do watching it...

Haha yeh. There’s some good value in this demolition derby, too.. :D 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=06zJmVBnroM

OOOH Rabada, I forgot about him. He belongs on my list earlier. He has a very sexy yorker on call and demand whenever he wants.

Steyn is lucky to be on your video. He did not have it on demand at all. Morkel had it more. Tbh. Steyn had a vicious outswinger at 150km/h. That's what made him a success.

Shoiab, like Lee,  was just pace, imo. SHoiab was more accurate, but those 2 were about breaking pace records. For the most part.

Younis is the best I ever seen. The reverse inswing, but like I say, the Garner footage is grainy and not clear. He was really highly rated. Its just hard to see.  Younis is in that video you just posted, and I recall even better ones. Literally made batsmen fall over often. Literally fall over. And literally often. He spent the 1990's just humiliating NZ batsmen as inept. We couldn't keep him out. At all. Bar one Mathew Hart cover drive. Once. (He cover drove a yorker for 4 on a bent knee ((he is left handed)).... best shot you will ever see, seriously - no way he does that twice in a row, though).... It will be on youtube on a match highlights package. I've never seen a shot like it since or before. But people on here know Im a Sangakarra fan, and he probably played something similar at some point. Gower too, lefties (bar MD Crowe, D Martyn, and G Chappel) just have extra elegance. 

Best shot I have ever seen in my life. Tbh. He played the stumps not the ball. He got lucky. But he was right. He creamed an unplayable ball for 4.

Yep Younis, Bond and Malinga in his heyday get my vote.