Colombo, Feb 10 (UNI) Australia will be without middle-order batter Tim David for their opening match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 against Ireland on Wednesday, skipper Mitchell Marsh confirmed on the eve of the contest.
According to the International Cricket Council (ICC) website, David, who is recovering from a hamstring strain, will miss the tournament opener as Australia looks to manage his workload carefully. However, Marsh indicated that the batter is expected to return in the matches to follow.
“We’ll certainly see him come back into contention over the next few games,” Marsh told reporters ahead of the Group B clash in Colombo.
Australia has been plagued by injury concerns in the lead-up to the World Cup and will also be without frontline pacers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. It marks the first time Australia has featured at a World Cup without Cummins, Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc since 2011.
In the absence of the senior trio, Nathan Ellis will spearhead the pace attack, with Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis also in contention to feature.
“Over the past 12 months, guys like Benny Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett have played pretty much all our games, so we’ve got great confidence that they’ll be able to do a role for us,” Marsh said.
The Australian captain said the team management had consciously expanded the player pool to ensure readiness for such situations.
“We’ve built out a squad of maybe 18 to 20 people that have played over the past 12 months, and we’ve got game time for all of them. They’ve all faced different situations in matches, and while some of them haven’t played a lot for Australia, they’ve played a lot of cricket, and we’ve got great confidence in the group that we’ve got here,” he added.
Australia, champions in 2021, have been placed in Group B alongside co-hosts Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Oman, and Ireland. They begin their campaign against Ireland on February 11.
