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Cricket PlayersNo Marsh, no problem for Australia
Australia won their T20 World Cup opener against Ireland by 67 runs, despite losing captain Mitchell Marsh to injury before the match.
Kolkata: Australia beat Ireland by 67 runs in their first match at Colombo to kick off their T20 World Cup campaign with a sparkling win but lost their captain Mitchell Marsh before even a ball was bowled.
Marsh was hit in the groin during practice earlier in the week and Cricket Australia issued a statement just before Wednesday’s game saying scans showed internal testicular bleeding and that he needed rest. Marsh joins fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood who had been already ruled out of the tournament, with star batter Tim David being rested in the hope of being called up later in the World Cup.
Australia are down to 12 players available now. To lose a clutch of stars like Marsh, Hazlewood and Cummins before a World Cup can be deflating for any team. But this performance showed that it would take much more to bother Australia. Their start was far from perfect with stand-in captain Travis Head running himself out after making a mess of a simple running call with Josh Inglis, who had been promoted to open in place of Marsh. Inglis took over, made 37 off 17 balls before Marcus Stoinis scored 45 off 29 balls to help Australia to 182/6.
The pitch at Premadasa Stadium was two paced, making stroke-making inconvenient throughout the match. Australia, especially Matt Renshaw, struggled to score in the middle overs but eventually used that experience to turn on the heat on Ireland with seamer Nathan Ellis (4/12) and spinner Adam Zampa (4/23) ensuring a swift victory. The clever change of pace from Ellis fetched him two wickets and reduced Ireland to 27/4 within the fifth over and ensured that Hazlewood or Cummins was not missed.
Zampa came in to mop up the rest of the batting, bamboozling the Ireland middle and lower order with a concoction of slower leg-breaks, flippers and googlies. Ireland are relatively inexperienced but not a team to roll over. But the ease with which Australia cruised to victory with 19 balls remaining again underlined how battle hardened this unit is to overcome any sudden challenge.
Help is being readied though with the ICC announcing earlier in the day that Steve Smith—who last played a T20I in February 2024—has been called to travel to Sri Lanka and acclimatize as an injury standby. Pace bowler Sean Abbott too is present in Sri Lanka as a travelling reserve. But if Australia continue in this vein, they might not need to ring the alarm bells rightaway.
