Marcus Stoinis Australia’s star all-arounder and a potential absence for their opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. At Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium on October 8, the Kangaroos will face the hosts, India.
According to Australia coach Andrew McDonald, Marcus Stoinis’ availability will be questionable due to a hamstring ache.
The 34-year-old hasn’t played a game since he developed the ailment during the opening ODI against India in Mohali last month.
He is currently dealing with a minor hamstring complaint, which is why he missed the practice matches. He is questionable for the opening match against India. He’ll go through his training there and we’ll see whether he’s suitable 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. “We’ve got the main session today and then another hit out.
Another all-arounder, Cameron Green, has been in excellent form and contributed significantly to the team during the final exhibition game against Pakistan. However, McDonald affirmed that the group planned to start both.
There is a way to accommodate both of them on one side. We’ve had a fairly clear plan for how we want to develop three ways of playing over the past 18 months. You’ve seen that side play over the previous 18 months, so there is a real possibility that both of those guys might be in the same XI and we haven’t ruled that out,” the coach continued. “One of those options is obviously with all the all-rounders and perhaps two quicks.
We know fairly clearly which direction we want to take: McDonald
When asked about the possible choices for Australia’s inaugural World Cup match, Andrew McDonald said that depending on the surface they are playing on, they might change the batting lineup or top-order structure.
“You can alter your top order’s composition as well as your batting lineup. Therefore, internally, we have a pretty good idea of how we want to approach it. And that will depend on the surface as well as the body without a doubt.
“The World Cup is a long tournament; there will undoubtedly be weary bodies at times. Although Travis Head is now sitting and in that position, the 42-year-old continued, “We feel as if with [our] squad we have fantastic flexibility. This will offer us greater latitude to shift and manoeuvre the side the way we have over the last 18 months.