Australia’s already thin playing stocks for the first one-dayer against England have been further decimated with Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood all under a clolud for the series opener due to illness.
Cricket.com.au can reveal the star trio are in serious doubt and may not play in Thursday’s first ODI at Trent Bridge (beginning 9.30pm AEST) as medical staff try to contain a virus sweeping through the visitors’ camp.
It’s the same illness that saw skipper Mitch Marsh miss last Friday’s second T20 in Cardiff. Opener Travis Head pushed through while not “100 per cent” to captain the side in his absence.
Starc and Maxwell only joined the touring party on Sunday after sitting out T20 series against Scotland and England, but both had a solid hit-out at training on Tuesday before falling ill.
“We’ll manage that as best we can and make sure we’re fielding teams to win this series.”
With Josh Inglis and Jake Fraser-McGurk also battling injuries, it leaves Australia drastically short of options within their 17-player squad.
Inglis has not batted or kept at training over the past two days as he recovers from quad soreness, opening the door for Alex Carey to play his first ODI since being dropped during last year’s World Cup.
Jake Fraser-McGurk was also nursing a sore hamstring following Australia’s three-wicket defeat in Cardiff after slipping while fielding. But he did bat for an extended period on the eve of the first ODI, hitting numerous balls into the Trent Bridge stands after completing a fitness session on Tuesday.
Sean Abbott and Ben Dwarshuis will almost certainly play, with allrounders Cameron Green and Aaron Hardie set to make up the rest of the pace overs. Matt Short figures as a like-for-like replacement for key man Maxwell.
The visitors also have 19-year-old tearaway Mahli Beardman on standby, but he only arrived in the UK on Tuesday morning after a 24-hour journey from Perth and didn’t bowl at training on match eve.
Marsh and Head have both recovered and will take their place in the XI as Australia seek to defy odds to win a 13th consecutive ODI.
Australia were already expected to rotate their star quicks throughout the series with five matches in just 11 days.
“It’s certainly a busy schedule, there will be times where we may have to manage guys through,” Marsh said at a pre-series press conference before the extent of sickness was fully known.
“We’ll manage that as best we can and make sure we’re fielding teams to win this series.”
Marsh did confirm leg-spinner Adam Zampa would play his 100th one-day international on Thursday, becoming the 32nd Australian man to reach the milestone.
It’s the second consecutive match Australia have faced a reduced squad to pick from with Marsh unwell, Hazlewood being carefully managed back from a calf injury and Xavier Bartlett and Riley Meredith injured.
It meant they had just 11 to pick from for the second T20 in the Welsh capital and fielded an attack with just two specialist bowlers (Zampa and Abbott) in the second T20.
Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne are also expected to come straight into the XI for today’s series opener.
