Captain Mitchell Marsh backed his Australia players to “get the job done” as they launch their T20 World Cup title charge against Ireland on Wednesday following a torrid build-up.
The 2021 champions were whitewashed 3-0 in Pakistan and are missing key players through injury, notably star pacemen Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
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Australian selectors also controversially overlooked Steve Smith, who is in form and one of their best batters against spin.
In what are expected to be turning conditions at the R. Premadasa Stadium in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo, Marsh’s message to his batsmen was a clear one.
“Look, I think we certainly want to be positive in the way we go about things,” he told reporters on Tuesday’s eve of their clash with Ireland, who are ranked 11 in the world to Australia’s two.
“I think in these conditions, it’s just about being really clear on how you’re going to go about it and playing what’s in front of you.
“The word adaptability has been thrown around in our team meetings so far and just adapt to whatever situation is put in front of us and get the job done.”
Marsh said that fast bowler Nathan Ellis is available after injury, but big-hitting Tim David won’t make the Ireland game.
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Marsh said he had no concerns over what will be a fairly inexperienced pace attack also featuring Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis, who was a last-minute replacement for Cummins.
“We’ve sort of built out a squad of maybe 18 to 20 people that have played over the last 12 months and we’ve got game time to all of them,” he said.
“They’ve all faced different situations in matches and whilst some of them haven’t played a lot for Australia, they’ve played a lot of cricket and we’ve got great confidence that they’re going to be able to do the job for us.”
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