Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is expected to miss the historic white-ball series against Pakistan following a training mishap.
Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh is expected to miss the historic white-ball series against Pakistan after suffering a hip flexor injury during a training session on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Australian one-day captain Aaron Finch revealed that Marsh had been sent for scans after sustaining the injury during a high-intensity fielding drill in Lahore.
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“He’s injured his hip flexor, we think, at training. We are going to have to wait and see what that looks like but I don’t think he’ll be available for the series based on how he was feeling yesterday,” Finch said.
“He sustained that in a fielding drill, it was a high intensity, lateral movement drill and he bent down to pick it up one handed and went to throw and felt a twinge.”
The Australian squad is already missing a cluster of world-class talent for the Pakistan series, including Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Kane Richardson, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Steve Smith.
Marsh was a member of Australia’s triumphant T20 World Cup squad last year, scoring an unbeaten 77 in the final against New Zealand to help the Aussies secure its maiden title.
In 2021, he broke the Australian record for most T20I runs in calendar year, pummelling 627 runs at 36.88.
During the recent Big Bash League tournament, Marsh cracked 347 runs at 57.83 for the Perth Scorchers, also contributing five wickets.
The West Australian narrowly missed out on winning the coveted Alan Border Medal in January, bettered by paceman Mitchell Starc by one point on the voting tally.
The Delhi Capitals purchased Marsh’s serviced at last month’s Indian Premier League Auction for a whopping AU$1.2 million sum, and the franchise will be now sweating on the 30-year-old’s availability after his injury setback.
Young all-rounder Cameron Green is expected to replace Marsh in Australia’s XI for the ODI series, which gets underway on Tuesday.
Green has previously represented Australia in one ODI, a 13-run defeat to India in December 2020.
“Cam will play and probably bat in that middle-order role … we’ve seen he’s a super talented cricketer, his impact with the bat and ball can’t be understated,” Finch said.
“We’ve still got a really solid idea of what our squad and out 11 would look like if the World Cup was tomorrow. It’s about making sure we are building that depth. His impact with the bat and ball can’t be understated.
“It’s a great opportunity for guys to put their hand sup and really build a case for their long-term spot in the squad, the excitement of having a younger side is huge as well. It’s about guys taking their opportunities when they present themselves. There’s going to be difficult times throughout the series, but really excited for these guys to get an opportunity.”
Australia has not played an ODI match in Pakistan since 1998, when Steve Waugh was the national captain.
The first ODI between Pakistan and Australia gets underway on Tuesday evening AEDT, with the first ball scheduled for 9pm.
Australian squad for white-ball Pakistan series
Aaron Finch (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Ben McDermott, Ben Dwarshuis, Mitchell Swepson, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa