For Tim David, it has been quite a journey to get into the Australian cricket team. After starting off his international career for Singapore, the destructive batter decided to leave his national team and bet on himself. David decided to become a globetrotter on the T20 circuit around the world and quickly became a hot prospect in the shortest format of the game.

The teams started going mad for him to get him into their side, as seen from his IPL auction battle between Mumbai Indians and Kolkata KnightRiders for this year’s edition. The five-time Champions won the battle and reaped the rewards as the batter got into form towards the end of the competition with some stunning displays. In nine matches he played for the Mumbai franchise, David scored 187 runs in 89 balls with a staggering strike-rate of 210.1.

Also Read: IND T20 WC: Opening, No.5 or bench?

Thrilling match between India vs Australia on Tuesday

The 26-year-old, who has now made it into the T20 World Cup squad for Australia, admitted that for a long time he felt that representing the national team looked unlikely, but he refused to give up on it. “I think for a long time (representing Australia) looked unlikely, but I don’t think that I wouldn’t have ever imagined it. It’s something that you still always want to strive for, and I guess it feels really rewarding for myself and I guess for my family and my support network to be able to get that call and share it with them,” said David.

Even former player Brad Hodge said Australia shouldn’t go back on keeping David in the T20 setup and should find him a stable spot. “This is the first time he will be able to squeeze into an Australian T20 side and I don’t think we should look back from this point onwards. He should be nearly first pick in this eleven going forward. If they can get this right, If they can give him a stable position at No.5 or No.6, then it will be a long way to going to be successful in the tournament,” said Hodge.

But this isn’t only newbie we will talk about ahead of the first match. Cameron Green also has the spotlight on him and the all-rounder has stepped up to the plate recently in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. But that’s just not all. The youngster has been getting backing from all corners including Ravichandran Ashwin who the man will go for big bucks if he puts himself in the IPL auction.