Harris held back from World Cup for Ashes

Rod Marsh didn't get the chance to tell Ryan Harris he wasn't going to be a part of Australia's World Cup squad. He didn't have to.

As the National Selection Panel chairman joined Australia's Test side in Sydney last night to toast their 2-0 series triumph over India, he sidled over to Harris to inform the veteran he'd been overlooked.

But before the words could leave Marsh's lips, Harris raised his hand to save the former Test 'keeper the trouble.

"Don't worry, mate," he said. "I know".

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Marsh recounted the story this morning after it was revealed that Mitchell Johnson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood had been chosen ahead of Harris as the four frontline quicks in Australia's 15-man squad for the ICC Cricket World Cup.

It's another example of the honesty and realism that has typified Harris's approach in a career that began at the turn of the century.

Harris's exclusion from the World Cup squad – with Marsh revealing the selectors had one eye on this winter's Ashes tour when making the decision – stirred plenty of debate.

Harris showed form with the bat against India

Former Australian fast bowler Tom Moody wrote that Harris was "one of the 50-over game's greatest performers" and was "a player for a special occasion".

"There is no one more likely to have an impact with the new ball," Moody wrote on a link he posted on Twitter Saturday.

"Mitch Johnson would also benefit from his Test partner-in-crime being in action at the other end.

"There is little doubt that Johnson’s great success over the past year or so has been aided by the pressure generated at the other end."

Harris boasts a Test record that includes 113 wickets in 27 matches at a strike-rate of a touch above 50, but he’s never denied that his age and battered body means he has some limitations.

His return to first-class cricket in Brisbane at the start of this summer, nine months after undergoing knee surgery, was followed by a typically forthright assessment of his own performance, despite taking seven wickets and hitting a half-century with the bat.

Knowing his body as well as he does, the 35-year-old insisted at the time he would need one more game before he could return to the Test side, adding he wouldn't put his hand up for selection if he wasn't at full fitness.

Harris shows his value with ball in Melbourne burst 

Having sent down 126 overs this summer on pitches in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney that were flatter than the Nullarbor Plain, and with an Ashes series just six months away, Marsh says a high pressure six-week tournament so soon after the Test series would have been a bridge too far for Harris.

And he says the veteran knows it, too.

"I think he would have loved to have been in the side, but I think he also realises that he would have struggled," Marsh said today.

"Ryan's 35 and just between all of us here I think we'd really love to see Ryan go to England and bowl his heart out again in Test cricket and keep those Ashes.

"He's that important to the team in Test match cricket.

"And I know there's nothing bigger than the World Cup, but I think maybe international one-day cricket, he's had his time there. "

It was a sentiment to which former Australian quick – and ex-selector – Andy Bichel agreed.

"I think he's been through a pretty tough Test period," Bichel told Fairfax Media.

"And he probably gets a little bit exposed in the field these days with the knee and his movement.

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Harris is a proven wicket-taker in limited-overs // Getty Images

"I know you need experience but you've got Shane Watson, Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin in there who have played a lot of cricket, so we've got enough in the group.

"So I think he just gets squeezed out, which is in a way sad because it would have been a great fairytale story for him to play in a World Cup at home."

If, as Marsh suggests, Australia have seen the last of Harris in an ODI shirt, it draws to an end to a career that has been spectacular but dormant for almost three years.

Harris took 44 wickets in 21 matches between 2009 and 2012 at an average of 18.90. His ODI strike rate of a wicket every 23.4 balls is the best among players to have played 20 matches or more.

His Test record also puts him in the top echelon of Australian cricket; he is ranked fourth in strike-rates and ninth in averages for Aussie bowlers in the past 100 years.

It's a remarkable record for a man who didn't get a taste of international cricket until nine months before his 30th birthday.

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"To be out on the same field with him and bowling at different ends to him, he's a great leader," Test newcomer Hazlewood said today.

"He's been very good for the younger guys coming through to learn off and how to go about his work in the longer format.

"His record is second to none really with his strike rate being so slow.

"He always takes wickets on flat wickets or if they've got something in them.

"For as long as he can play Test cricket, I think Australia's in a pretty good position."

And with Harris showing the ropes to the likes of Hazlewood, Starc and Cummins, Australia should be in a pretty good position long after he retires as well.

Australia’s World Cup Fixtures

February 14: v England, 2:30pm at the MCG

February 21: v Bangladesh, 1:30pm at the Gabba

February 28: v New Zealand, 2:00pm at Eden Park (NZ)

March 4: v Afghanistan, 2:30pm at the WACA

March 8: v Sri Lanka, 2:30pm at the SCG

March 13: v Scotland, 2:30pm at Blundstone Arena

View the full fixture list here

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