Australia have announced a 21-strong squad that will face England in a three-T20I series, which will be followed by a three-match ODI series. However, the duo of Khawaja and Short were left out of it. Langer said now said a congested top order was the main reason behind the exclusion of the left-handed batsmen.

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“The way we’re going to set up our game plan at the moment, Uzzie (Khawaja) is competing with David Warner, Aaron Finch and Steve Smith at the top of the order,” Langer said. “At the moment, our view is those guys are getting the nod ahead of him.

“Marnus is a bit different, he’s batting at No.4 and got a hundred in his last game (against South Africa in March) and he’s had an incredible twelve months. Ultimately Uzzie is competing against those top three at the moment, and that’s why he’s missed out.

“I’m a massive fan of Usman Khawaja, he knows that and I’ve said that over and over. He had an incredible year last year in white-ball cricket, but unfortunately, he has two guys in Steve Smith and David Warner who are coming back into the team and they have the spot at the moment.”

A look at the three uncapped players in Australia’s squad for their upcoming tour of England. https://t.co/G3ULpDg16I

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 14, 2020

Langer said Short was excluded for similar reasons. “I saw him (Short) yesterday play a practice game here in Perth, he played really well again as he keeps doing. He’s got the double chance, in the sense that he’s also competing at the top of the order which we know he can do.

“He does that really well in domestic cricket, but he’s competing again, like Uzzie, against those three I mentioned before. And we need some allrounders in the middle and at the moment he’s competing with Glenn Maxwell who has come back into the team.

“He’s taken D’Arcy’s spot, mainly because we feel more confident getting overs out of Glenn Maxwell than we do out of Shorty in the middle overs. Shorty is really aware of that. He’s working very, very hard on his bowling. He’s had a pretty good run at it, batting in the middle, but Maxy got there.

“It just goes to show what depth we’ve got if we’ve leaving D’Arcy, Uzzie and Travis Head out.”