'Marsh will be fit to bowl in T20 World Cup', says Australia head coach Andrew McDonald

NEW DELHI: Australia cricket team head coach Andrew McDonald revealed that the T20 World Cup skipper Mitchell Marsh is not fit to bowl until the final week before the squad heads to the Caribbean, but will be fully fit for the tournament's opening game.

Marsh has been out of action since the April 3 IPL 2024 clash for Delhi Capitals due to a right hamstring strain. He flew back home to Perth from India to begin his recovery.

In the next two weeks, Marsh will spend the first of two three-day pre-tournament training camps in Brisbane with members of Australia's squad who are not playing in the IPL, before the team departs for the Caribbean on May 25 for the mega event.

Although Marsh's hamstring had sufficiently healed over the previous two days to allow him to bat in the nets. However, McDonald feels he is still a couple of weeks away from returning to the bowling crease as Marsh's recovery is a little "slower than expected."

"He's progressing well. Probably a little slower than expected. But we've got plenty of time now that he has been ruled out the IPL. (Our) first game is just short of a month away now. So ample time for him to get ready," McDonald was quoted by cricket.com.au website.

"You probably won't see him bowl in the next couple of weeks here. It'll probably happen the week before we leave. And then he'll be able to ramp that up when we're over there. We'll be able to cherry pick the moments during the tournament where he'll be useful with the ball, (and) we've got some all-round depth in the squad, which gives us good coverage anyway," he added.

McDonald stated that there was no concern around a lack of match practice for Marsh over the last two months given Australia will have some practice games before their opening clash with Oman.

"No real concern about match fitness. We've got a couple of practice games when we get to Trinidad in the support period, so he'll have plenty of match opportunities, and if not we'll be able to simulate those through practice. By the first game against Oman, we're confident he'll be up and running," McDonald said.

The head coach also said that Australia would likely take one travelling reserve with up to seven players into consideration.

"Should anything shift or move, or new information comes our way and then we'll have to make some decisions from there. But we'll have 20-22 players up and running, should anything go amiss with the people that have been picked in the 15," he said

Australia will open their T20 World Cup campaign against Oman on June 5 in Barbados.