Not retired, or dropped: Stoinis has unfinished T20 business for Australia

It is mid-afternoon on a hot summer's day in London, and Marcus Stoinis is sitting on the members' benches in the lower tier of the Lord's Pavilion. He has spent the last two hours training on the Nursery Ground and, yet to look at his phone, he is anxious to learn the result of Australia's T20I against South Africa, more than 8,000 miles away in Darwin.

"Has it finished?" Stoinis asks. It has: Australia have lost by 53 runs, their first defeat in 10 matches. "I was watching it on the bus, but we just had training so I missed most of our batting innings," he explains. It is an unusual scenario for him, albeit one that he is growing used to: a regular in Australia's T20 team since 2018, he has now missed two series in a row.

The curious aspect is that Stoinis has not retired from T20Is, nor has he been dropped. His non-involvement owes to conversations he instigated with Andrew McDonald and George Bailey - Australia's coach and chief selector - earlier this year, and he still hopes to be selected for upcoming series against New Zealand and India with an eye on the 2026 T20 World Cup.

Stoinis has been a freelancer - without a national or state contract - for the past year, and remains in high demand in leagues around the world. It is a lifestyle that suits him, and deals like his £200,000 direct signing with Trent Rockets are hard to turn down. "There's no better place to play," he says, ahead of Thursday's fixture against London Spirit at Lord's.

"The nature of it is that you can't select yourself in an Australian jersey, but you can sign a contract to come and play in the Hundred," Stoinis explains. "When this opportunity came up, I spoke to Cricket Australia, I spoke to Ron [McDonald] and we made a plan around that, really… When you're planning it in advance, that makes it easier."

He has retired from ODIs but remains available for T20 selection, and Bailey confirmed last week that he will be "firmly in the mix" for next year's World Cup. "We are very lucky," Stoinis says. "We do it very well in Australia. The relationships that I've got with both Ron and Bails means you just have those conversations pretty openly."

His absence has created opportunities for 23-year-old allrounder Mitchell Owen in the middle order, who impressed in the Caribbean last month. "Maybe it's because I'm older, but I want him to do well," Stoinis, who turns 36 on Saturday, says. "We were just with each other during the IPL [at Punjab Kings] and it's been good for him to play different roles.

"I'm also fully aware that myself and Maxi [Glenn Maxwell] - and, more recently, Timmy David - have been holding that spot through the middle of Australian cricket for a long time. It's very hard for other, young people to come through and have a crack at that… You need to bring through the next generation as well. It's no-one's spot."

He has found it "weird" watching his team-mates from afar but seems at peace with the decisions that he has made. "You share a few messages after the games and have a laugh... They say playing for your country should be the best time of your life, and for me it has been. But I don't feel like it's done yet."

Life as a freelancer has meant the best part of five months on the road for Stoinis. He spent from mid-March to early June in India for the IPL - contracting Covid-19 during a short trip home when the league was suspended - then flew back to Australia to get his visa sorted for Major League Cricket. He had two weeks off after that, then was back to the UK for the Hundred.

He occasionally employs a personal chef in India and, along with Tim David, trains with Jim Allenby - the former Glamorgan allrounder, now a coach - when he is back in Perth. But he generally looks after himself and relies on the staff at his various teams, rather than travelling the world with an entourage in tow as a tennis player or a golfer would.

It is a happy coincidence, then, that his Melbourne Stars coach Peter Moores is involved in the Rockets' backroom staff, and he has also worked with Andy Flower before at Lucknow Super Giants. Graeme Swann has been arranging the team's golf days, and they are a happy bunch after starting the season with wins over Birmingham Phoenix and Northern Superchargers.

Stoinis played in the Hundred three years ago with Southern Brave, and says that he has wanted to return ever since. He will have family at Lord's on Thursday night, and his girlfriend Sarah arrives next week: "Whenever an Aussie plays in England, the family sees it as a good opportunity to make the trip over. It's somewhere where everyone wants to be."

He has noted the presence of new team owners in the Hundred, and expects Cricket Australia will follow suit with the BBL. Players have an obvious vested interest in private investment and Stoinis is unsurprisingly supportive, arguing that it is the obvious direction of travel - even if he still sees the chance to play in next year's T20 World Cup as his main personal ambition.

"Thinking about the IPL owners and what they've done with the IPL, you want people that have got a track record of building something that's very good. If they do that, it's great for them, but it's also great for English cricket or for Australian cricket… It's a pretty clear path to me, as to where most of cricket's going."