Australia head coach Andrew McDonald is hopeful that skipper Mitchell Marsh will start bowling in the upcoming matches of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024. Australia will take on Namibia at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua, on Wednesday. McDonald expressed his optimism about Marsh’s return to bowling during the competition. “We’re very hopeful that he will be back ready to bowl in matches. I’d say the likelihood of that against Namibia is very slim, potentially increasing into Scotland, and then I think you should have a clear run at the Super 8s and be able to bowl there. The assumption there is that we qualify and as I said, Namibia first thing and then we can start to work out what it looks like for the Super 8s and beyond,” McDonald stated during the pre-match press conference.
The Australian coach also emphasised the importance of net run rate, pointing out that no side will take its net run rate into the Super 8s. This resets the competition as every team starts from zero again. “I don’t think there’s any other way of really doing it. It creates interest. The only thing is that you don’t carry your net run rate through to the Super 8s, which is a little bit interesting. The whole tournament starts again. So, I would have liked to have seen the benefit of the early rounds and what you were able to do in the early rounds and even right down to the seats. So clearly, we’re seeded number two. We can’t change that seeding so it doesn’t change what happens in the Super 8s for us in terms of seedings. But we’ll work through it after Namibia. We’ve got Namibia in front of us and that’s our focus, not England,” McDonald pointed out.
McDonald stated that the team’s performance against England reflected the management’s preferred style of play. “I think that’s a pretty obvious statement, Benny. No, it is. We probably started slow in our last two World Cups. The 50 over one was well documented and we went zip in two. And then New Zealand gave us a bit of a touch-up at the SCG. So, it’s nice to start fast. Oman was niggly in those first-hand overs, the surface settling into a World Cup. But the way the boys played against England, that’s the style that we want to play. The guys are committed to that and if we fail playing that way, we’re comfortable with that. But really good to have that solid performance early on in the tournament. It gives us a lot of confidence. And then there will be moving parts as we go along. You rarely get everyone going through unscathed in terms of fitness and that type of thing. So, there’ll be problems that come up but it’s nice to have it in our own hands definitely,” the coach stated.
