Marsh played only four matches for the Delhi Capitals in the recently finished IPL due to a right hamstring strain, and he returned to Australia in the final week of April to continue his recovery.
Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s captain, will not bowl in the T20 World Cup opener against Oman on June 6 and will instead play as a hitter as he recovers from a hamstring injury sustained during the IPL, head coach Andrew McDonald announced Friday.Marsh scored 18 and 4 in the World Cup warm-up games against Namibia and the co-host West Indies in Trinidad.
However, the pace-bowling all-rounder did not play the entire bowling innings in either game, and Matthew Wade took over as captain in his absence.
“He fielded more overs tonight (during the warm-up against the West Indies), and he was able to move more freely, so he’s gaining confidence. “It appears that he is ready for the first game,” he continued.
Marsh played only four matches for Delhi Capitals in the recently concluded IPL due to a right hamstring strain, and he returned to Australia in the last week of April to continue his recovery.
“The second part is just when the bowling comes back online… it won’t be the first game,” McDonald added.
During the second warm-up game against the West Indies, nine-man Australia lost by 35 runs, with the Kangaroos missing skipper Pat Cummins, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Cameron Green, and Travis Head, who are yet to join the team.
Australian players that competed in the IPL flew home to be with their family and were exempt from the warm-up games.
“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,” McDonald said.
“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.” On June 9, Australia will face archrivals and defending T20 World Cup champion England.
“We believe we have plenty of time to pull that group together. It’s a familiar group, having played a lot together. “If they hadn’t played so much together, the prep could have looked different,” the coach added.
“We feel at ease, though, because they know how to play with one another. It will simply be finalising the XIs for the games and the desired balances. We have plenty of possibilities.”
