Australia will be short on resources for their 2024 T20 World Cup warm-up matches, with only nine players at their disposal.
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The cramped schedule between the IPL 2024 final and the T20 World Cup, which will start on June 1, has resulted in Australia being short-handed for their two practice matches against Namibia on May 29 (Wednesday) and West Indies on May 31 (Friday).
Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Travis Head featured in the final of IPL 2024 on Sunday and will fly back to Australia before joining the national squad ahead of their first group game against Oman on June 5. Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green, both of whom were part of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s play-off finish, in addition to Marcus Stoinis, have returned home and are currently on a break.
“We’re going to be undermanned,” captain Mitch Marsh confirmed cricket.com.au.
Marsh added: “But it is a practice game. The guys who need to play will play as much as they can and we’ll figure it out from there. It’s important to be flexible. Guys who have been at the IPL have been playing a lot of cricket. We prioritised giving them a couple of days at home to see their families, refresh, and play the long game for this tournament. We’ve also got guys that have played in the final tonight.
“We will get our 15 (all together) eventually, but really important that we give them a break, even if it’s just a couple of days at home, that’s really important.”
To add to Australia’s headache, Marsh himself is recovering from a hamstring injury, which forced him to pull out from IPL 2024 midway through the season. His participation in the warm-up fixtures isn’t yet confirmed.
The shortage of players means Australia will probably field their coaching staff during the warm-up matches.
They have head coach Andrew McDonald, national selector George Bailey, assistant coach Andre Borovec and Brad Hodge, who has joined the support staff for the global event, to choose from. Daniel Vettori, who is part of the coaching staff, is unable to take the field for Australia given that he is from New Zealand.
