Cricket World Cup 2023: Marcus Stoinis under injury cloud for Australia's opener

The Aussies have arrived in Chennai ahead of their first match of the tournament proper against hosts India on Sunday on the back of 13 white-ball games in little over a month, with no fewer than 26 different players touring with the side at various stages since late August.

Stoinis has been part of the touring party the entire time but has not featured in any of Australia’s four most recent games.

While fellow all-rounder Glenn Maxwell said after the warm-up win against Pakistan that Stoinis was “tracking all right” ahead of the tournament, CODE revealed on Thursday that Stoinis has not been 100 per cent in the build-up and is facing an uphill battle to be picked for the match against India.

Australian coach Andrew McDonald subsequently confirmed details of Stoinis’ ailment, picked up after a one-dayer against India in Mohali last month.

“He’s got a slight hamstring complaint at this stage. So that’s why he missed the practice games and he’ll be touch and go for the first game against India,” McDonald said on Thursday.

“So we’ve got the main session today and then got another hit out tomorrow. So he’ll go through his work there and we’ll see whether he’s available for selection game one, but at the moment he wasn’t fit and available for those practice games.”

Even if Stoinis is fit, Aaron Finch – who led Australia at the last 50-World Cup and captained Australia to a Twenty20 world title two years ago – said he expected Stoinis to be shaded by Cameron Green for a spot in Australia’s middle order.

“I think one of the all-rounders will miss to be honest,” Finch said.

“I think (the team will) be (David) Warner and (Mitch) Marsh, (Steve) Smith, Marnus (Labuschagne), (Glenn) Maxwell, (Alex) Carey, Green, (Pat) Cummins, (Mitchell) Starc, Hazlewood, Zampa.”

McDonald however said he could foresee Green and Stoinis playing in the same XI at some stage during the tournament.

The coach meanwhile declared Labuschagne a definite starter for the opener, having not even been in the squad until a week ago.

“He’s gone away and worked on his game and it’s a great story. If you’re looking for whether he’s a certain starter then if he’s not in your team then I don’t know who else you’re gonna put in there. So I think he’s, he’s pretty much a lock in that top four and how we structure up is probably the only sort of final question that we need to answer.”

Finch, who retired from international cricket earlier this year, said he had been heartened by the way McDonald had spread the load across such a large group of players but flagged concerns around fatigue.

“I think the preparation’s been OK. The thing that concerns me a little bit is probably how much they’ve played over the last little while and how much everyone’s been on the road,” Finch told this masthead.

“To go from a decent length tour of five ODIs and three T20s in South Africa, to three ODIs in India, I think the last couple of practice games has been about trying to get everyone as much content while also trying to freshen up some guys that have been travelling quite a bit as well.”

Stoinis, Adam Zampa and Josh Hazlewood are among those who have been on light duties across the latter stages of the build-up for an event that lasts around seven weeks and features nine round robin games before the semi-finals.

“They’ve been pretty gruelling the last six weeks for them, or eight weeks. You’d hate for them to get to the end of the tournament and all be burnt out. Trying to find them ways to keep in peak performance is crucial,” Finch said.

“ODIs are such a gruelling format on your body and your mind with how long the days are, especially back to games, non stop and I think having some guys coming in a little bit later into that preparation through injury probably gives them the perfect amount of time to ease into it. The more experience you get, the more you‘re able to go in slowly under done and that can work to your advantage. Andrew has done a great job in managing the workload of all the players and making sure that they’re fresh for this tournament and not just the first two or three games.”

Finch meanwhile says his replacement as opener Travis Head must return by the halfway mark of the event to be worth recalling to the side as the left-hander races to recover from a broken hand.

While selection chair George Bailey refused last week to put a deadline on when Head needed to be back, Finch said there was only so much time the opener could be afforded as he continues to rehabilitate in Adelaide from his injury suffered in South Africa.

“I think it’s the halfway mark in the tournament. I think if he can’t make it past that, you probably don’t give yourself enough time to come in,” Finch said.

“But he’s the kind of player that doesn’t really need a lot of preparation. I guess the only challenge is he’s going to find is the ability to hit any balls before that’s 100 per cent right. I think if you’ve got a soft tissue injury, you can get into the nets and you can start to be batting pretty soon after it and then it’s just a matter of getting the injury right. I think with a hand injury, his ability to be able to get up to speed quick enough will be the only talking point.