Mitchell Marsh hamstring injury, Andrew McDonald press conference, video, cricket news
National coach Andrew McDonald has backed Mitchell Marsh to be available for Australia’s entire T20 World Cup campaign next month despite the skipper’s “slower than expected” recovery from a hamstring injury.
Despite reports that he would miss Australia’s training camp in Brisbane this week, Marsh was batting in the nets at Allan Border Field on Tuesday.
“It’s good to see him up here,” McDonald said of the 32-year-old all-rounder, whose IPL campaign with the Delhi Capitals was cut short by injury.
“He’s progressing well, probably a little slower than expected on the back of the hamstring (problem), but we’ve got plenty of time now that he’s been ruled out of the IPL.
“The first (World Cup) game (against Oman) is just short of a month (away) now, so there’s ample time for him to get ready, but it’s really positive to see the skipper on the park.”
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McDonald said there were no plans to rest Marsh during the early stages of the tournament being held in the Caribbean and the US.
“By the first game against Oman (on June 6 in Barbados) we’re confident he’ll be up and running,” Australia’s coach said.
“I don’t think there’s any consideration around resting him. There are some good spaces between those early games as well.
“At the back end of the tournament when you get to the Super 8s stage, there are back-to-back games there … but it’d only be another setback that would push him into that stage that we’d have to manage him.”
McDonald was also confident Australia’s squad would be safe at the World Cup despite reports that the Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley had confirmed a terror threat.
“We’ve got full confidence in the people around the team, full confidence in the ICC, that we’re in good hands,” he said.
“Should that situation shift, then we’ll be advised around what that looks like, but at the moment, we’ve had no clear directive on what that looks like.
“We’ll be briefed like we are in any country around the security risks, what we can and can’t do, and how we best protect and look after the team.”
McDonald also reiterated that it had been a tough decision to overlook the World Cup selection claims of Steve Smith, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Matt Short and Xavier Bartlett.
“There are a lot of considerations around selections and your final squads,” he said.
“We feel as though we’ve got the balance to play many different styles of game.
“There were a lot of players putting their hand up, but unfortunately we’ve got to shrink it into 15, and we feel like the 15 gives us all the ways that we want to play.”
