Pakistan's Abrar Ahmed, center, celebrates with teammate after the dismissal of Australia's Mitchell Marsh, right, during the second T20 cricket match between Pakistan and Australia, in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
February 05, 2026 - 3:49 PM
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Mitch Marsh's Australia squad has had a chaotic buildup to the Twenty20 World Cup, he'll fully agree.
Josh Hazlewood was ruled out Friday because of a long-term hamstring injury, meaning Australia will go into a World Cup tournament for the first time since 2011 without any of its three frontline pace bowlers.
Pat Cummins was ruled out because of injury and Mitchell Starc has retired from T20s.
Adding to the lack of experience, top-order batter and former skipper Steve Smith wasn’t selected.
Then there's the on-field dramas: A 3-0 series loss for an understrength lineup in Pakistan, including Australia's worst-ever loss in the T20 format.
For Marsh, though, that's already in the past.
“Look, Pakistan was Pakistan,” the big allrounder said at the tournament’s captains call this week in Colombo. “We had a few guys missing and we come here with a long lead-in and a good training session yesterday.
“We'll be very well prepared for our first game.”
It's a good thing that's not until Wednesday.
The Australians usually enter the global International Cricket Council tournaments among the favorites for the title. They've dominated the World Cup in the one-day format, have reached two of the three World Test Championship finals and won the T20 world title in 2021.
Until the trip to Pakistan, Australia had won 17 of 21 T20s.
But things are different this time, with injuries and a very slow changing of the guard.
The tournament being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka starts Saturday with Pakistan against Netherlands. Australia doesn't open until Feb. 11 against Ireland in Colombo, the first of four Group B games in 10 days that also includes showdowns with Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Oman.
The Australian batters struggled against spin on slow, turning pitches in Pakistan and the conditions are similar in Sri Lanka.
After the quick tour to Pakistan, Marsh said the home team had “outplayed us throughout the whole series.”
“We will take learnings from that,” he said. “We will certainly address this series and look forward to the World Cup.”
Helping matters for the Australians will be the return of allrounder Glenn Maxwell, big-hitting batter Tim David and economical fast bowler Nathan Ellis to the squad after arriving in Colombo.
Maxwell has long been one of the greatest T20 players in the world, capable of producing match-winning innings, engineering crucial wickets with his off-spin and turning momentum with his exceptional fielding.
His form is crucial to Australia's success, along with the ability of Marsh and Travis Head to get the innings away to fast starts. Head has proven himself as a match-winner in the test and ODI formats and should excel on the biggest stage in T20, where his ability against spin and his array of scoring options suit the tempo of the game. He hasn't posted a half-century in his last 11 T20 international innings, but he could be primed for the world tournament.
In the understrength bowling department, Ellis, who is returning from a hamstring injury, and veteran spinner Adam Zampa hold the keys.
Zampa has taken 139 wickets in 111 T20 internationals at an economy rate of 7.37 and a strike rate of 17, and was among the stars of the 2021 title-winning squad.
Hazlewood was initially going to have a delayed start to the tournament and remained in Sydney to continue his recovery, with Sean Abbott sent to Sri Lanka as a traveling reserve for cover.
"We were hopeful Josh would be back to match fitness by the Super Eights stage but the latest indications (are) he is still some time away,” Australia selector Tony Dodemaide said Friday. “Trying to accelerate his program will carry too much of a risk.
“We will not be naming a replacement player immediately. We feel we are well covered for the initial games so will make any later decisions based on priority need at the time.”
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