Travis Head will captain Australia in the opening match of the T20 World Cup against Ireland after Mitchell Marsh was ruled out moments before the game having suffered a blow to the the groin in training earlier in the week which has caused testicular bleeding.
Marsh’s injury left Australia selecting from just 12 players for this game after the decision was made to hold Tim David back until the Zimbabwe fixture as he continues his return from a hamstring problem.
Josh Inglis will move to the top of the order to partner Head while Cooper Connolly is selected in a spin-heavy attack which also features fellow left-armer Matt Kuhnemann. Ben Dwarshuis is the one available player left out.
Head opted to bat first on winning the toss. “Looks like a good wicket,” he said. “The Pakistan series didn’t go our way, but what’s important is this tournament.
Ireland captain Paul Stirling said he would have done the same as his side look to bounce back from their opening loss against Sri Lanka. “It helps we know the conditions and how the pitch will do,” he said. “Gives us a fraction of an advantage.”
Ireland named an unchanged XI.
Australia 1 Travis Head (capt), 2 Josh Inglis (wk), 3 Cameron Green, 4 Matt Renshaw, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Cooper Connolly, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Matt Kuhnemann
Ireland 1 Paul Stirling (capt), 2 Ross Adair, 3 Harry Tector, 4 Lorcan Ticker (capt), 5 Curtis Campher, 6 Ben Calitz, 7 Gareth Delany, 8 George Dockrell, 9 Mark Adair, 10 Barry McCarthy, 11 Matthew Humphreys
