CT: Australia To Look At Top Three Batters And Bowling Combination, Says McDonald

CT: Australia to look at top three batters and bowling combination, says McDonald (Image Source: IANS)

World Test Championship: Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said the side would be looking at the structure of their top three batters in the absence of Mitchell Marsh and their bowling combination minus Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood in their upcoming two ODIs against Sri Lanka.

With the Champions Trophy just less than ten days away, Australia will be using ODIs against Sri Lanka in Colombo to see who can fill up the vacancies in their squad for the eight-team tournament after Cummins, Hazlewood and Marsh were ruled out due to varying injuries and Marcus Stoinis announcing a shock retirement from ODI cricket.

"You want to play to win, there's no doubt about that because winning form always helps the confidence of a group. But there will definitely be some options that we look at, how we go about it - what the structure of the top three (batting) looks like without Mitch Marsh there."

"And the bowling dynamic completely changes, it's almost a whole new attack so we have to work out how that functions as well. There will definitely be some things that we look at. The consideration is the conditions (in Colombo) are potentially somewhat different to what we get in Pakistan."

"Last time we came here (in 2022) it spun square in the one-day series, so hopefully they’re flatter surfaces for us to prepare, but who knows," McDonald was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au on Monday.

With Australia completing a 2-0 Test series win over Sri Lanka, McDonald also indicated the squad chosen for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord's from June 11-15 will be totally different from the team selected to tour the West Indies for three Tests, starting from June 25.

"We've had a bit of chat around it. But it would be different from England to the West Indies I'd imagine. England creates a different challenge then off to the West Indies, which can spin, and can also swing and seam. So we'll make those decisions when we get to it."

"The beauty of it is we've got some time before we have to make those decisions. It's great to have that depth there, it's great to have options. There will be a squeeze, and whoever misses out will be very unlucky."

"We've had a bit of chat around it. But it would be different from England to the West Indies I'd imagine. England creates a different challenge then off to the West Indies, which can spin, and can also swing and seam. So we'll make those decisions when we get to it."

Article Source: IANS