Hazlewood's late arrival comes amid Aussie Cup concerns

2h ago Louis Cameron

Mitch Marsh confident spin woes can be put behind them in Sri Lanka as injury clouds hover over key bowlers

Australia will arrive in Sri Lanka for their T20 World Cup campaign without their most credentialled seamer, while injury clouds linger over their other two first-choice options with the ball nine days out from their tournament opener.

Josh Hazlewood, the only member of the 'big three' Aussie quicks taking part in the ICC event beginning this weekend, will remain in Sydney for the start of the campaign as he rehabilitates from the Achilles injury that ruined his Ashes summer. It is unclear if he will arrive on the island in time to take part in his side’s tournament opener against Ireland on February 11.

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Sean Abbott has been named as a travelling reserve as cover with fellow quick Nathan Ellis still on the mend from a hamstring issue. Unlike Hazlewood, Ellis has arrived in Colombo for the group stage.

The concerns over Australia’s two first-choice pacemen are heightened given Pat Cummins (injury) and Mitchell Starc (retired from T20Is) are both unavailable, while star spinner Adam Zampa is again nursing a groin niggle.

Zampa did not bat in the final T20I against Pakistan on Sunday, but Australia insist the no-show was only precautionary. "He just had some awareness in his groin," captain Mitch Marsh told reporters in Lahore.

"At this stage leading to the World Cup, there was no risk to be taken there. So that's all that was."

Zampa also battled a neck complaint during the KFC BBL and has had to be carefully managed through previous ICC events. It adds to a sense of uncertainty over a bowling attack that will rely heavily on input from allrounders like Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell over the coming weeks.

Yet the decision not to rush Hazlewood – and possibly Ellis and Zampa too depending on how their respective recoveries progress – shapes as prudent given the low-stakes nature of the start of this World Cup.

Presuming Australia take care of business against 11th-ranked Ireland, 12th-ranked Zimbabwe and 20th-ranked Oman, their game against co-hosts Sri Lanka (on February 16 in Kandy) will essentially be meaningless given seedings for the Super Eights stage are pre-determined.

It leaves scope for Australia to also ease back key man Tim David from the hamstring injury that cut short his Big Bash.

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But Australia will then need to be humming (with, they hope, Hazlewood, Ellis and Zampa leading their attack) when they likely face West Indies, India and South Africa in the space of a week if they want to qualify for the semi-finals.

All three of those matches will be played in India, where the Aussies expect to encounter more batter-friendly wickets than what they will see in their group matches in Sri Lanka.

"We felt with Josh it was more practical and beneficial for him to continue his rehabilitation at home in a familiar environment before travelling to Sri Lanka," selector Tony Dodemaide said.

"With Nathan also completing his return to play we decided to bring Sean with us as fast bowling cover should anything come up at short notice … It made sense for him to stay with the group following the Pakistan tour."

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Seamers Ben Dwarshuis, a last-minute replacement for Cummins, and Xavier Bartlett, along with spinner Matthew Kuhnemann and allrounder Cooper Connolly are the other bowling options in Australia's 15-player squad.

They should all get a final shot at pushing their case for major World Cup roles in a warm-up match against the Netherlands at the Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.

Australia's batting is also under the microscope after their fortunes against spin bowling dipped to a historically low level in their 0-3 series thumping in Pakistan that now has them winless from their past five T20Is.

The 22 wickets Australia lost to spin out in the three-match campaign in Lahore was the most they had ever lost in any T20I series or tournament, eclipsing even the 21 wickets they lost to spin in seven matches of their most recent T20 World Cup tilt in the Caribbean in mid-2024.

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There were mitigating factors. Openers Marsh (1 and 18) and Travis Head (4 and 23) both misfired in the two games they respectively played but both are proven big-game performers.

Of the likely middle-order Australia will take into this World Cup, only Green (the Aussies' leading run maker against Pakistan with scores of 36, 35 and 22) played multiple matches in the series on a low-bouncing surfaces, which Zampa conceded were "alien" to the greener members of the visitors' squad.

Neither Maxwell nor David played in the Pakistan series while wicketkeeper Josh Inglis only featured once. Those players had been integral in Australia losing only one game in 16 T20Is in an almost 12-month span between November 2024 to November 2025.

"In isolation, purely in this series, we struggled. But over the last 18 months, I think as a team we've been one of the best teams in the world, and we've played spin really well," Marsh said yesterday.

"We'll chat tonight, we'll take the learnings, we'll move on to the World Cup and we know we're a very good side in all conditions.

"We know that conditions can spin in Sri Lanka and we'll assess that when we get there. We also we've got some extremely good players of spin coming back and (some) experience coming back.

"We've got great trust that we can play well in these conditions. Over the last four days we've just been outplayed by Pakistan."

2026 ICC Men's T20 World Cup

Australia squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Sean Abbott