Australia captain Mitchell Marsh will not be bowling in their T20 World Cup opener against Oman on June 6, playing solely as a batter as he recovers from a hamstring injury sustained during the IPL, head coach Andrew McDonald announced on Friday.
Pat Cummins ” Everyone in the team loves playing underneath Mitchell Marsh so he will do great Job. We all are there if he needs us, he can lean on us anytime when he needs help but it’s his show so we will let him run it, he will do a great job.”pic.twitter.com/hW8N9gzy5R
— Sujeet Suman (@sujeetsuman1991) May 31, 2024
“For Mitch, (the warm-up games) was about ticking off where his body was at,” McDonald told cricket.com.au.
“He fielded more overs tonight (in the warm-up against West Indies), he was able to move more freely, so he’s building a little bit of confidence there. It looks as though he’s all set for the first game,” he added.
Mitchell Marsh to be used only as a batter in T20 World Cup Opener?
Marsh participated in both World Cup warm-up games against Namibia and co-hosts West Indies in Trinidad, scoring 18 and 4 respectively. However, the pace-bowling all-rounder did not complete the full fielding innings in either game, with Matthew Wade taking over the captaincy in his stead.
Marsh played only four matches for the Delhi Capitals in the recent IPL season due to a right hamstring niggle and returned to Australia at the end of April to continue his recovery.
In the second warm-up game against the West Indies, Australia lost by 35 runs, feeling the absence of key players Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Cameron Green, and Travis Head, who have yet to join the squad.
“It was by design, in terms of when we were getting people back after the IPL; we were well aware we weren’t going to get the squad together until the first of next month,” said McDonald.
“We’ve got some things in place where we’ll bring the group together, we’ll work through our plans leading into Oman and there’s a bit of space between that game and (playing) England.” Australia will play arch-rivals and defending T20 World Cup champions England in Barbados on June 9.
“We feel as though we have plenty of time to bring that group together. It’s a familiar group, they’ve played a lot together. If they hadn’t played a lot together then the prep might have looked different,” the coach added.
Australian players who participated in the IPL returned home to be with their families and were excused from the warm-up matches.
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