George Bailey quits as Australian T20 captain

George Bailey

Australia’s George Bailey has stepped down from his position as the national Twenty20 captain citing his willingness to play more four-day cricket, a format that he finds “the most challenging and most enjoyable”. The 32-year-old, however, isn’t much concerned about whether doing so will earn him a Test spot.

Bailey, who led the Australian team in the last two T20 World Cups, explaining his decision, said: "The very end goal is hopefully to play more Test cricket, but more than that it's just about playing the best four-day cricket I can."

"It's the format I find the most challenging and the format that I get the most enjoyment from – it's where my real passion lies. Whether concentrating on that ends up in me getting back into the Test squad, it doesn't worry me too much.

"It's just about playing as well as I can."

The Tasmanian hopes that he can make a comeback to the Test arena with consistent performances in the Sheffield Shield. He said: "I know I was picked out of one-day cricket for my last opportunity to play Test cricket and I don't think that would happen again. I think the only way is through Sheffield Shield or first-class runs. The best chance for me to do that is to play as many Shield games as I can."

The middle order batsman has also made himself unavailable for the upcoming T20 series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates and against South Africa at home; he hasn’t yet announced his retirement, though.

Structure and scheduling of T20s a big challenge

Although international T20 games are few and far between, Bailey thinks it is that very nature makes it taxing for players. He said: "Just the structure and scheduling of T20 is a really big challenge. Often it's hard to remember who you had in your squad from one tour to the next, and (there are) a lot of one and two-game series which is quite challenging as well.

"But also we've had the chance to see a number of young guys come through and develop which is exciting.

"I wanted to give a new captain an opportunity to find his feet and put his mark on that team for the (2016) World Cup."

Under Bailey’s captaincy, Australia reached the semi-finals of the 2012 World Cup; in 2014, though, they were thrown out in the group stages despite coming in with the favourites’ tag. The right-hander has 470 runs in his 28 T20 internationals at an average of 26.11 and a strike-rate of 140.71.

Bailey’s next assignment is to captain the Indian Premier League side Kings XI Punjab in the Champions League T20, which begins from September 13.