Stoinis still ‘touch and go’ for Chennai clash, reckons Pat Cummins

India and Australia will kick-start their respective World Cup campaigns by locking horns against each other at the M.A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on a Super Sunday clash. Two of the most in-form sides and genuine contenders for the title, Australia and India, will harbor hopes of having a positive start to the campaign. But Australia are grappling with many injury issues ahead of the tournament, and even now, Marcus Stoinis, one of the most important cogs in their wheel, isn’t sure of a spot in the side for the hamstring niggle he picked up in the first ODI against India in Mohali last month. 

“We'll announce a team tomorrow at the toss. Stoinis, yeah, still touch and go. He's going to have a run out this afternoon but is probably up against it, he's got to jump through a few hoops. So, yeah, we'll see,” Cummins said in the pre-match press conference in Chennai.

“The plan at the moment is for whoever is playing to be on the table to bowl. Obviously, if things shift, then we'll manage that. The good thing is I think each game between Maxwell, Marsh, Green, Stoinis, I think we'll have lots of bowling. So, there might be some games where one or two all-rounders don't bowl or bowl very little. It's just the way the overs pan out. 

“But yeah, Mitch is really good and all on track. So yeah, that's kind of been the design to hold him back from South Africa and start building up for the World Cup, and it's yeah, he's going really well,” Cummins added.

Keeping the ICC World Cup 2023 in mind, India and Australia have already played in six ODIs in 2023 alone - all matches in India. From that aspect alone, Australia have a pretty good experience of Indian conditions and what to expect against their spinners. Cummins admitted that they will try to use the learnings from those games to play the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.

“They're a good bowling lineup, especially here in home conditions. So, they're going to be challenging. The good thing is we've played them a lot. So, our batters will have their own plans. And again, we've had success against them a few times. They've bowled well against us a few times as well. Yeah, Davey, we'll see if he bats right-handed or left-handed. Yeah, he's probably better left-handed, I reckon, but we'll see how we go,” the Australian skipper said.