Cricket World Cup 2023: Marcus Stoinis cleared for return, Australia v South Africa team selection
Amid calls to axe Marcus Stoinis, the hulking allrounder now shapes as Australia’s World Cup saviour after being cleared to play in Australia’s must-win pool clash against South Africa.
A “frustrated” Marcus Stoinis is set to be unleashed on the World Cup with the all-rounder cleared to return from his hamstring injury against South Africa on Thursday.
Stoinis was ruled out of Australia’s tournament opener against India in Chennai after hurting his hamstring in a warm-up series against the hosts.
In his absence, the Aussies slumped to a six-wicket defeat, adding pressure on the side ahead of back-to-back matches in Lucknow against the Proteas and Sri Lanka.
With Travis Head still in Adelaide recovering from his broken hand, Australia could only call on 13 fit players for the match against India.
But Stoinis’ long-time national and Melbourne Stars teammate Glenn Maxwell confirmed on Tuesday that the West Australian had been given the green light to play.
“He’s back available for selection. I think he was pretty touch and go for that first game. And I think with the travel days and the timings of the training session, he probably only missed the first game by maybe a day,” Maxwell said.
“They were sort of trying to (do) ‘has a big day and then has a day off’ and I think his big day was the day before the game anyway, where I think it just pissed down with rain anyway so it ruined his training session. I think he’ll be good to go.
“This is his home ground in the IPL so he’ll be enjoying hopefully being back out there in a couple days’ time.”
Maxwell said Stoinis had pent-up energy after being forced into a delayed start to the tournament.
“I’ve been speaking to him a fair bit being close mates and he says he feels ready to go and he’s excited and frustrated that he obviously couldn’t be out there for the first game,” Maxwell said.
“He’s a big energy for our team and someone who obviously is a matchwinner and someone you need in these types of tournaments.”
While Australia is yet to confirm an XI for the date with South Africa, Stoinis’ availability leaves fellow WA all-rounder Cameron Green vulnerable after he made a limp eight and went wicketless from two overs against India.
Another man under the pump is wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who made a second-ball duck in Chennai to continue a stretch of underwhelming form dating back to the middle of the Ashes series. Ex-Australian captain Tim Paine said Carey appeared to have not been the same player since the Jonny Bairstow stumping controversy, but Maxwell said he didn’t think the public backlash was playing a role months down the track.
“I think at the time it probably did. I think there’s been enough water under the bridge since then,” Carey said.
“ I think he’s in a really good space at the moment. He seems to be batting really well in the nets from what I saw until I probably ran him out in that practice game. But yeah, he seems in really good spirits. He’s keeping really well, he’s doing a great job for us, and the other night he just got his bat caught behind his pad which can happen sometimes. I feel like every batter has made that mistake where they are trying to get forward and just clipped your pad and it deflects a little bit. But he’s in good touch and I’m looking forward to seeing him do really well.”
Maxwell - who bowled eight overs in India’s chase - said he had pulled up well from the first game after nursing an ankle issue heading into the tournament.
“I’m alright, just a lot of diving in on the wicket area. But it was nice. I suppose a World Cup game you’re not going to sort of hold anything back to so I feel like I’ve been withholding a lot of the 100 per cent sort of stuff until this tournament started just to make sure that I didn’t sort of flare anything up but you can’t sort of hold back once it comes to a World Cup,” Maxwell said.
“So it was nice to sort of get the shackles off and sort of run around and be a bit of a maniac in the field and run around and dive and I loved it. It was good to be back out. Good to have postgame soreness and enjoy that and looking forward to the next few days getting ready.”
D-DAY ARRIVES FOR INJURED STAR
- Ben Horne
Injured Australian opener Travis Head faces a final scan on his broken hand on Thursday which could determine his World Cup fate.
Australia’s selectors decided to take a massive gamble on keeping Head in its 15-man World Cup squad in the knowledge he wouldn’t be fit to play until at least the halfway point of the tournament.
Head is still in Adelaide watching Australia from his loungeroom, but there is optimism that a positive scan result would see him on a plane to India by next week.
Early reports on Head’s recovery since breaking his hand in South Africa last month have been positive, but Australia will be desperate for a conclusive prognosis on his return to play date, with the heat rising following Sunday’s opening loss to India in Chennai.
If Australia was to lose a second consecutive game against South Africa on Thursday in Lucknow then the team would be forced to walk the tightest of tightropes for the remainder of the group stage to qualify for next month’s semi-finals.
There is an obvious imbalance in Australia’s squad at the moment with Adam Zampa the only frontline spinner, and in that sense Thursday really shapes as D-Day for Head’s survival in the World Cup squad.
A crucial win over the high-flying Proteas coupled with a positive scan result for Head would bide Australia some more time and justify the logic behind keeping faith in one of the most explosive matchwinners in the game.
But defeat against South Africa and lingering doubt over when Head might return to action might force selectors into a squad change.
Head is the type of batsman who could change the course of Australia’s fortunes when he returns for the business end of the tournament, but he won’t be much good to them if the side is already out of the semi-final running by the time he returns.
Going 0-2 down in the World Cup wouldn’t necessarily be fateful to Australia’s finals hopes, given England dropped early matches in 2019 and still rallied to lift the trophy at Lord’s.
The 50-over World Cup is a marathon not a sprint.
But it would mean Australia would need to be close to perfect in their other crunch group games against the likes of Pakistan, New Zealand and England.
The shootout for the four semi-final spots would appear to be a race between six teams, India, Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan and South Africa.
More Coverage
Test hopefuls fall flat in Shield auditions
The Indians were dismissed for a humiliating 46 against New Zealand last week. On latest evidence in the Sheffield Shield, 46 might be more than enough against Australia.
Smith: ‘I didn’t ask’ to move back to No.4
Steve Smith has revealed he didn’t ask to move down the order in the Test side, just a week after the coach and captain said he had initiated the move away from opening.