Australia’s primary all-rounder, Marcus Stoinis, may not be available for their initial encounter against India in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. The Australian team is scheduled to meet the host nation, India, in their opening encounter on October 8th at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald has expressed uncertainty about Stoinis’s availability due to a lingering hamstring issue. The 34-year-old all-rounder sustained this injury during the initial ODI against India in Mohali last month and has been sidelined from action ever since.
“He’s got a slight hamstring complaint at this stage, so that’s why he missed the practice games and he’ll be touch and go for the first game against India. We’ve got the main session today and then another hit out tomorrow, so he’ll go through his work there and we’ll see whether he’s available for selection for game one but at the moment he wasn’t fit and available for those practice games,” McDonald said in Chennai as quoted by ESPNCricinfo
If Stoinis isn’t an option, Cameron Green might just make his World Cup debut when facing India. Green has shown excellent form and played a crucial role for the team in the recent warm-up match against Pakistan. Nevertheless, McDonald mentioned that the team’s plan was to include both of them in the starting lineup.
Australia has another player suffering an injury in their 15-member squad. Travis Head won’t be available for at least the first half of the World Cup since he’s battling with a fractured hand. This injury occurred during the recent ODI series against Australia.
“There’s a way that we can fit them both into the one side. Over the last 18 months, we’ve had a pretty clear way that we want to build three ways of playing. One of those ways is definitely with all the all-rounders and potentially two quicks, and you’ve seen that side in the past 18 months being played, so there is a real possibility that both of those players can be in the same XI and we haven’t ruled that out,” the coach further added.
When asked about Australia’s potential choices for their first match in the World Cup, Andrew McDonald suggested that they might adjust the batting order or the composition of the top order depending on the type of pitch they encounter.
“You can change your batting line-up, you can change the structure of your top order. So behind the scenes, we’re pretty clear on the way that we want to go about it. And that’ll be surface-dependent and clearly body-dependent as well.
“The World Cup is a long campaign, there’s no doubt going to be some sore bodies at certain times. We feel as though with [our] squad that we’ve got great flexibility, albeit at the moment obviously Travis Head sitting and where he’s at, that’ll give us greater scope to shift and manoeuvre the side the way that we have over the last 18 months,” McDonald further added.
The team has strong expectations that the left-handed player will reach full fitness before the end of the season, which is why they’ve included him in their roster. Australia has suffered its fair share of injury issues lately, as seen with Pat Cummins and Steve Smith both being sidelined for the South Africa series. Cummins had a cracked wrist, while Smith had an injured wrist. Additionally, Glenn Maxwell is still on the road to complete recovery from an ankle injury but stays committed to playing through the agony in the World Cup.
