Australia’s chaotic buildup to cricket’s T20 World Cup: Injuries, omissions and losses

By Canadian Press on February 5, 2026.

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) — Mitch Marsh’s Australia squad has had a chaotic buildup to the Twenty20 World Cup, he’ll fully agree.

Pat Cummins was ruled out because of injury, Steve Smith wasn’t selected, Mitchell Starc has retired from T20s, and Josh Hazlewood was sidelined for the start of the tournament with an injured hamstring.

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 aren’t too dissimilar 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 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.

With veteran paceman Hazlewood continuing his hamstring recovery in Sydney, Sean Abbott has been sent to Sri Lanka as a traveling reserve for cover.

“Sean is an accomplished and versatile international player who has experienced numerous World Cup campaigns,” Australia selector Tony Dodemaide said. “It made sense for him to stay with the group following the Pakistan tour.”

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

John Pye, The Associated Press

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