The stylish right-hander cited his heavy playing workload with the national team in opting out of the lucrative two-week tournament starting on October 8.

But the Blues will be taking the likes of Simon Katich, Nathan Bracken, Brett Lee and Stuart Clark.

In announcing the 15-man squad, NSW chief executive David Gilbert said he was excited about what they might achieve.

“The NSW squad has an excellent mixture of international experience and talented youngsters and I am very excited about our prospects going into a tournament that will showcase the NSW team on the world stage for the first time,” he said.

Katich will captain the team.

New South Wales represent Australia in the tournament of 12 teams along with Victoria, whom they beat in last season’s domestic Twenty20 final.

The teams are divided into four groups of three with the top two then qualifying for the semi-finals.

New South have been grouped with English T20 champions Sussex and South African runners-up the Diamond Eagles.

New South Wales squad

Simon Katich (capt), Aaron Bird, Doug Bollinger, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark, Brad Haddin, Nathan Hauritz, Moises Henriques, Phillip Hughes, Brett Lee, Stephen O’Keefe, Ben Rohrer, Steven Smith, Dominic Thornely, David Warner.