'We’re confident with this group': Mitchell Marsh trusts Australia’s inexperienced bowling attack

NEW DELHI: Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh has expressed confidence in his side’s relatively inexperienced bowling attack stepping up during the T20 World Cup, despite the absence of frontline pacers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

This marks the first major ICC tournament since 2016 in which Australia will feature without a single member of their renowned pace trio.

While Starc retired from the T20 format last year, Cummins and Hazlewood have both been ruled out of the tournament due to injuries.

In their absence, Nathan Ellis, Ben Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett are set to lead the pace department for the defending champions.

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We’ve Built This Group

Marsh believes the current bowling group is well-prepared, pointing to the opportunities the younger pacers have received over the past year.

"Guys like Patty (Cummins) have played a lot for us over the last few years due to his hectic schedule and over the last 12 months guys like Benny Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett have played pretty much all of our games," Marsh said on the eve of their opening game against Ireland.

"We've got great confidence that they've been able to do a role for us, and they've excelled in some games. So we're confident with the group that we've got here. And we've built that for the last 12 months."

Lessons Learned From Pakistan Tour

Australia enter the World Cup following a challenging 0-3 T20I series loss to Pakistan, which included their heaviest defeat in the format — a 111-run loss.

Marsh, however, believes the tour provided valuable learning opportunities for the squad.

"It (Pakistan tour) was some great learnings from that tour. We had some young guys that got exposed to those conditions for probably the first time in their career.

"We take the lessons and we move on and we obviously welcome some experienced guys back into our group for this part for this tournament so yeah we've certainly parked that and we move on and we look forward to the World Cup," Marsh said.

Focus on Adaptability

Australian batters struggled against spin during the Pakistan series, and Marsh acknowledged the need to adjust quickly, particularly with Sri Lankan conditions expected to assist slower bowlers.

"We certainly know the conditions that we're going to be faced with and I think most teams will have, I guess, similar ideas on how they're going to go about it. So we're prepared for that and we're ready to go," he said.

"Look, I think we certainly want to be positive in the way we go about things. I think in these conditions, it's just about being really clear on how you're going to go about it and playing what's in front of you," Marsh said ahead of Australia's T20 World Cup opener against Ireland.

"The word adaptability has been thrown around in our team meetings so far and just adapt to whatever situation is put in front of us and get the job done," he added.

Marsh also confirmed that big-hitting batter Tim David will not be available for Australia’s opening match as he continues his recovery from a hamstring injury.

"He's not available tomorrow, but we'll certainly see him come back into contention over the next few games," Marsh said.

(With PTI Inputs)