Australia coach hopeful of Marsh return in Super 8s

Ahead of their game against Namibia in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said that the management is very hopeful that skipper Mitchell Marsh will bowl in the upcoming matches of the mega event.

In their second fixture, Australia will lock horns against Namibia at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua on Wednesday.

"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." McDonald said in the pre-match press conference.

The all-rounder further spoke about net run-rate. He stated that no team will carry their net run rate in the Super 8s so it's interesting 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," the 43-year-old asserted.

McDonald said that the way the team played against England was the style of play that management wanted from the side.

In the end, McDonald spoke about Glenn Maxwell's innings against the defending champions. He said that Maxwell's innings was significant as it allowed the rest of the batters to play as they wanted to.
"Albeit it wasn't the dynamic innings that we're used to with Glenn Maxwell, it was a different type of innings. But geez, it was important to allow Marcus Stoinis to come in where he did, allow Tim David and Matthew Wade, and then you're able to get to those 200-plus scores," McDonald concluded.