But with Maxwell and Stoinis having been mainstays of the T20 team over the past decade, including winning a T20 World Cup together in 2021, their omissions were glaring given neither has retired from T20I cricket. They were also in Australia’s first-choice XI during the disastrous World Cup campaign in February, while Smith was a late inclusion to the squad as an injury replacement after having not played a T20I since February 2024.

Bailey said none of them were technically “dropped”, but admitted the poor World Cup meant it was time to look at some other players given there are two years before the LA Olympics and two-and-a-half years before the home T20 World Cup in 2028.

“It’s not the end of the road,” Bailey said. “I wouldn’t call it dropped per se, but I understand that they’re not within the squad. But certainly, just given where we are in the cycle of T20s and on the back of our World Cup result, it’s a good opportunity, I think, to have a look at some different players. I’m not taking away the fact that every time that we take a team or squad away, the expectation and our expectation is that we will win and those players will perform. So it’s a really important period of time, I think, for that T20 group to actually start to develop some different players in different roles across that.

“But that’s not to say that it might be the last we’ve seen of those three.”

Maxwell, 37, has made one half-century in his last 20 T20 innings, which included the T20 World Cup, and he will be 40 by the 2028 World Cup. But he has not put a timeline on his future and has even spoken to Victoria about playing 50-over state cricket this summer in Australia despite having retired from ODI cricket.

Stoinis turns 37 in August, but has been a key performer for Punjab Kings in IPL 2026, and remains in high demand on the franchise circuit.

Smith turns 37 in June, but has stated his desire to represent Australia at the LA Olympics. There was widespread frustration in Australia about his omission from the initial World Cup squad after a stunning BBL campaign but the selectors are adamant that he is a T20 opener only and sits behind incumbents Mitchell Marsh and Travis Head in the pecking order. He overcame a sluggish start to the PSL and finished with 380 runs at 34.54, striking at 161.7, including two half-centuries and a stunning 106 from 50 balls against finalists Hyderabad Kingsmen. He is also set to play in MLC in June and will continue to play the franchise circuit around his Test commitments after retiring from ODI cricket.

“I think there’s a high degree of talent there,” Bailey said. “Starting to see the fruits of that in some white-ball performances for New South Wales and through the Big Bash this year. He’s a left-arm spinner as well and we’ve spoken at length about the importance of that and development of that throughout the country and hopefully we get to see a little bit of that as well.”