Port of Spain (Trinidad): Australia captain Mitchell Marsh is fit to play the T20 World Cup opener against Oman but won’t bowl in the fixture.
The all-rounder sustained a hamstring injury during the Indian Premier League (IPL) in April and was ruled out of the tournament. He returned to action in the two warm-up fixtures earlier this week. In both the matches he did not field for the full innings.
However, McDonald has confirmed that Marsh will play the match against Oman in Barbados on June 6 but only as a batter. His return to bowling is still uncertain.
“For Mitch, (the warm-up games) were about ticking off where his body was at. He fielded more overs, 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,” cricket.com.au quoted McDonald as saying.
“The second part is just when the bowling comes back online …it won’t be the first game,” he added.
Marsh replaced retired Aaron Finch as Australia’s T20I captain last month. He scored 18 and four runs against Namibia and West Indies, respectively in the warm-up fixtures.
Australia were short of players for their both practice games as Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green spent some time home after returning from the IPL final earlier this week. They all will join the squad in Barbados.
“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,” said McDonald.
“It will just be finalising the XIs for the games, and the balances that we want. We’ve got plenty of options,” he added.
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa. Travelling Reserves: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Short.
–IANS