COLOMBO: Australian captain Mitchell Marsh on Thursday placed faith in his team’s depth to cover the absence of injured pacers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood during the ICC T20 World Cup, beginning from Saturday.
Cummins was ruled out of the marquee event with a back strain and Hazlewood will miss a couple of matches in the group phase because of an Achilles niggle.
“I think we've got a lot of bases covered. One of the great things about Pat and Josh especially, being all three format players, is that we've been able to build a lot of depth within our squad and the guys that have come in have played a lot of cricket for our group,” Marsh said during Captains’ Briefing ahead of the World Cup here.
Marsh hoped that the Australian spinners will be at their best on Sri Lankan pitches, which are generally a paradise for slow bowlers.
“We've got a lot of confidence in them to go out there and do the job when required and then we'll just pick teams based on the conditions. Matthew Kuhnemann has been great for us.
“We've also got Adam Zampa and then we've got a few spinning all-rounders, like most teams will,” he added.
Australia’s build-up to the World Cup was not an ideal one as they lost an away T20I series against Pakistan 0-3.
But Marsh did not read too much into it.
“Yeah, look, Pakistan was Pakistan. We had a few guys missing and we came here with a long lead-in, a good training session. We have a practice game ahead and then a long build-in to our game. So, we will be very well prepared for our first game,” he said.
Australia are placed in Group B alongside Ireland, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and Oman.
Marsh termed it a tricky draw but said his side has the wherewithal to ace the challenge.
“Yeah, we've got great respect for all the teams that we're going to be playing against. Over the last 18 months, I feel we've been one of the most consistent sides in the world. We come to this World Cup really confident, knowing that conditions will be different at times.
“But we've got guys that have experienced that all over the world," he said.
Netherlands skipper Scott Edwards said they are looking to play against India at Ahmedabad.
“We're just obviously very excited. All the groups are strong in their own right. Playing against India at Ahmedabad, that's obviously going to be quite a big event," said Edwards.
Jatinder Singh, the Oman captain, hoped that the lessons learned from Duleep Mendis, their head coach and former Sri Lankan captain, will stand them in good stead in the tournament.
“We have a strong team, but we believe we have to play fearless and positive cricket. That is how we can go to the next round. Regarding
Duleep, he's a wonderful coach and a wonderful mentor for our team, working for so many years, since 2012 he's with the Oman team," said Jatinder.
Ireland captain Paul Stirling was excited to be placed in a tough group in the World Cup.
“We play cricket because we want to play against the best sides in the world as often as we can and you see a group come out like that and we're just terribly excited to get out there and try and put our best foot forward.
“We don't play that level of cricket every week in, week out. So, all I can say is when that group came out, there were more smiles than frowns. We're just excited to get out there and hopefully show what we've got,” said Stirling.