Australia is looking at the upcoming three One-day Internationals and the three games the two teams will play in September to experiment with their lineups and buildup towards the 50-overs World Cup to be held in India later this year.
Australia, who have not played One-dayers so far in this calendar year, will take on India in three ODIs starting with the first match at the Wankhede Stadium here on Friday with games scheduled in Visakhapatnam (March 19) and Chennai (March 22).
All-rounder Mitchell Marsh said they are going into the forthcoming three games with a winning mindset but at the same time will be testing combinations and giving opportunities to players.
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“I think it’s really important that we have a focus to win this series. Anytime we play for Australia, it’s always important to have that mindset. But as every team will be doing now over the next six months, it’s all building towards the World Cup. So we may see ourselves playing a few different lineups and experimenting with a few guys.
But our mindset in coming here to win the series. We’ve all got a fair bit of experience playing here now, which is great. So yeah, hopefully, it can be a good few games for us,” Marsh said during the pre-match press conference here on Thursday.
The 31-year-old all-rounder is on a comeback trail and has had a few domestic games on returning from an injury layoff. Marsh said he was feeling good and wanted to return to a better version of himself.
“Yeah, I feel great. I think anytime you get a long layoff through injury, for me, it’s been really important to make sure I come back a better version of myself, and I feel that way right now. I feel really good. It was nice to be able to play some games, get some miles in the legs and then get ready for this series. So I’m feeling great and. Hopefully, I can contribute to a few wins,” Marsh said.
Marsh underwent surgery after the T20 World Cup and ODI series against England during which he had carried the ankle problem that he initially picked up against Zimbabwe. Though he has recovered from the injury, he will be playing in the ODI series against India purely as a batsman as he is not yet ready to start bowling.
“No, I won’t be bowling in this series. Yeah, probably still probably a month away. Three weeks away from bowling in the game. So yeah I will look to build towards the IPL. I am certainly not saying that I’m rushing back. We’ve got a lot of options in our team at the moment and a lot of matches to play this year. So yeah, the reason I had the surgery was to prolong my career as an all-rounder and you know I won’t be rushing back,” he said.
Australia have a lot of all-rounders in their squad for this ODI series as Marnus Labuschangne, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, and Mitchell Marsh besides wicket-keeper batters Alex Carey and Josh Inglis.
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Marsh said it’s an advantage as it gives the captain options in both batting and bowling.
“I think it’s vitally important that they play all three of us. That’s a joke. I think it’s for the balance of our team, having as many all-rounders in here as we can. It is really important for the structure that we line up with. I think we’ve seen really good teams in the past, like England, have guys batting at 8 that are genuine batters and it gives you the ability to either set really big totals or chase big totals. And I think we’ll see that hopefully this series it’s going to be a lot of runs scored and looking forward to the World Cup,” he said.
“Just the way the crickets played here in the white-ball format, you’re going to have to chase big scores or make big scores and be able to defend them so the more flexibility you can have with your batting. And depth. I think it’s gonna be really important,” he said.
Marsh said presence of all-rounders gives the captain options in batting as well.
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