Australian batsman Marnus Labuschagne has been left surprised by the snubbing of Steve Smith when it came to picking a fill in captain for Pat Cummins during the second ODI against England in Sydney on Saturday.
The match, which saw Australia complete a 2-0 series victory over the T20 World Cup champions as the final road to the ODI World Cup in India began, saw Cummins rested after a busy start to the summer.
Australia have already played three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe and New Zealand, a three-match T20 series away in India, two T20 matches against the West Indies, three in England, and then the World Cup on home soil itself.
There is a gap of just eight days between the third ODI in Melbourne on Tuesday and the first Test against the West Indies in Perth next Wednesday, with two Tests against the WIndies to be followed by three against South Africa, the second half of the Big Bash League, and then a four-Test tour of India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in February and March.
The IPL will follow hot on the heels of that, before Australia travel to England for the Ashes and World Test Championship final, before final preparations for the ODI World Cup ramp up, with the tournament to be played in India during October and November.
The busy calendar has already seen Cummins withdraw from the IPL, and the Test and ODI captain, as well as the rest of the pace bowling attack, will have their workloads carefully managed throughout the course of the next 12 months.
Labuschagne said that while he was surprised former captain Steve Smith didn't slot back into the role for the second ODI, it was about having multiple leadership options in the team as to why Halzewood took over.
"It was probably a little bit of a surprise but I think as a squad and as a group, we're trying to make sure that we're not just kind of becoming a team that can be focused on one specific person to captain," he said at the MCG on Monday ahead of the series dead rubber.
"Josh and Steve are great leaders and Steve's got a wealth of captaincy experience.
"Obviously the thought was to give to give Josh an opportunity in that leadership space where he hasn't had much opportunity prior to that."
Smith is the Australian Test vice-captain, however, Cricket Australia didn't announce a vice-captain for the ODI team when Cummins took over from Aaron Finch following the matches against New Zealand.
