Australia captain Mitch Marsh has declared himself fit ahead of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup in the US and the West Indies, starting June 1.
The all-rounder injured his hamstring during the early stages of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and has not played at any level since failing to trouble the scorers at the start of April for the Delhi Capitals against eventual champions Kolkata Knight Riders.
But with the start of the T20 World Cup less than a week away, Marsh looked in good touch when joining a group of his teammates at training in Trinidad on Sunday and will be fit to take on Oman in their tournament opener in Barbados on June 5.
“It’s been progressively slow, but I’m finally getting there now and looking forward to getting stuck into the tournament. Initially we thought it was a three-weeker, but with tendons, they can take a little bit longer and you’ve sort of got to go on feel. Once I was ruled out of the IPL, we’ve certainly taken our time to get right. And I feel lucky that I’ve had that bit of extra time, a little bit of time at home to refresh,” Marsh said.
While Marsh is likely to take part in Australia’s warm-up fixture against Namibia on Tuesday, the Australia captain will play purely as a batter and won’t make a return to bowling for some time yet.
“Probably still a little while off. I’ll start bowling hopefully soon. Get through these practice games as a batter and then we’ll ramp it up. But it’s one of the beauties of being captain now, I don’t have to bowl myself.”
“We’re lucky that we’ve got so many options with the ball and so much talent, Stoin (Marcus Stoinis) and Greenie (Cameron Green), and we’ve got a lot of options. So, all our planning, it allows me to be really clear on that. I’ll bowl when I need to bowl, but outside that, it’s always team first,” he said.
However, it remains to be seen if Australia can have a full XI for the warm-up fixture, given that a host of their stars are expected to arrive in the West Indies later in the week after they participated in Sunday’s Indian Premier League final.
Opener Travis Head and fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Mitch Starc all featured in that IPL title clash and will head home to Australia for some rest prior to joining with their teammates in the Caribbean, while travelling reserves Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short are also yet to arrive.
“Guys have been at the IPL and they have been playing a lot of cricket, so we’ve prioritised giving them a couple of days at home to see their family, refresh and play the long game for this tournament,” Marsh said.
“We’re going to be undermanned a little bit (against Namibia), but it is a practice game. And the guys that need to play will play as much as they can and we’ll figure it out from there,” he added.