Australian head coach Andrew McDonald has expressed his confidence in the captain Mitchell Marshis available for the entire ICC T20 World Cup 2024 despite a slower than expected recovery from a hamstring injury sustained during the ongoing IPL 2024.
There were reports that the star all-rounder could miss Australia’s training camp in Brisbane this week, but the skipper was spotted batting in the nets at Allan Border Field on Tuesday, May 7, showing positive progress in his rehabilitation.
Marsh is unlikely to return to bowling until the final week before Australia’s 2024 T20 World Cup squad departs for the Caribbean due to his recovery from a hamstring injury. However, McDonald remains optimistic that Marsh will be fit by the opening game of the tournament.
You probably won’t see him bow…: Andrew McDonald on Mitchell Marsh
However, the Australian all-rounder has been actively batting in the nets over the last two days, but the head coach clarified that his bowling fitness is still developing and he will not be ready to bowl until much closer to the start of the upcoming 2024 T20 World Cup on June 1st.
Andrew McDonald was quoted by Fox Sports as saying: “It’s nice to see him up here. He’s making good progress, probably a little slower than expected because of the hamstring problem (issue), but we have plenty of time now that he’s been ruled out of the IPL. However, you probably won’t see him bowling here in the next few weeks. It will probably happen a week before we leave. And then he’ll be able to reinforce that when we’re over there.
We can pick out the moments during the tournament where he will be useful with the ball. We have a certain all-round depth in the squad, which means we have good cover anyway. The first (World Cup) game (against Oman) is almost a month away now so he has plenty of time to prepare but it is really positive to see the captain on the park. We are confident he will be ready for the first game against Oman (June 6 in Barbados).”
Andrew McDonald talks about Australia’s next plans
McDonald also denied any plans to give Marsh a break in the early stages of the ICC tournament. The head coach also confirmed that Australia is likely to select a traveling reserve player for the season T20 World Cup 2024 However, they have not yet decided what type of player they need to replace the 15-man squad for the US and Caribbean tournament.
McDonald also supported his senior players to deliver for Australia once again in the ICC tournament. Notably, Marsh, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa are the only members of Australia’s 15-man squad who are not currently taking part in the ongoing IPL 2024 and have started training in Brisbane in the first two days.
In addition, Aaron Hardie, Tanveer Sangha, Matt Short, Matt Kuhnemann, Xavier Bartlett and Marnus Labuschagne also took part in the training sessions, albeit for their county stays.