While Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell won’t play in
the opening ODI of the three-match series against India in Mohali, which serves
as the penultimate prelude before the World Cup, skipper Pat Cummins expressed
optimism that they will.
They are among a group of experienced players,
including Cummins, who are making a comeback after missing the South Africa
series due to injury. While Maxwell, who was previously scheduled to take
paternity leave, had to leave South Africa early owing to ankle pain and would
only join the team on Friday, Starc has been healing from a groyne injury he
sustained in the Ashes.
“We want to strike the balance between getting
used to these conditions, hopefully winning some games, but we also don’t want
to get to that first game [of the World Cup] and already be cooked,”
Cummins said. “No doubt we’ll be trying a few different combinations, a
few different players will get a chance but ideally we’d like to structure up
pretty closely to how we’ll play in the World Cup.
“So batters batting in similar positions, … and
as a captain I want to get used to how you use your bowlers over here, it might
be a bit different to say South Africa or Australia. Does the second spinner
play a part? Hopefully we get some answers over the next few games.”
Building towards the World Cup, Australia have focused
heavily on having a deep batting order, and it is a balance Cummins said would
continue, although there could be an extra specialist bowler occasionally.
“You need five bowlers, so the more allrounders
you have you can really bolster your batting,” Cummins said. “It
gives us flexibility to pick four genuine bowlers or maybe three bowlers and
bat an allrounder at No. 8. Hopefully Maxi comes back later in the series, but
the other three guys have been bowling fantastically.”