Mitchell Marsh rocked with another injury, rules him out of the Champions Trophy and puts his IPL season in doubt.
Mitchell Marsh rocked back with a back injury that will see him miss the Champions Trophy for Australia this month. The injury also casts a cloud of uncertainty over his participation in the IPL for Lucknow Super Giants.
It has been that sort of time for Mitchell Marsh in his career. The injury comes after a rather bleak outing for Australia in the BGT that saw him dropped for Beau Webster in Sydney.
After the Test series against India, he played one BBL match on January 7. However, he took a break from the final three BBL games to recuperate both physically and emotionally in preparation for the Champions Trophy. However, the selectors have disqualified him from the competition because his back continues to be a major problem. The problem was defined as “lower back pain and dysfunction” in a CA statement, but no details were provided.
“Mitchell Marsh has been ruled out of the upcoming ICC Men’s Champion’s Trophy with ongoing lower back pain and dysfunction,” the statement said. “The National Selection Panel and Australian men’s medical team ruled Marsh out of the tournament with the injury which has not responded sufficiently to rehabilitation.
“His lower back pain flared in recent weeks leading the NSP to make the longer term decision for Marsh to complete a more extended period of rehabilitation. Marsh will now undergo a period of further rest and rehabilitation as part of his return to play plan. The NSP will meet to decide on a replacement for Marsh in due course.”
Plans for the top-order will need to be adjusted due to the absence of Marsh, Australia’s T20I skipper and the player who has replaced Pat Cummins as captain of the ODI team. Despite having a poor run in the BBL until the very end and suffering against Pakistan earlier in the season, Jake Fraser-McGurk might be a replacement. Although he has only twice reached 50 in 22 innings and has not yet faced 50 balls or more in List A cricket, his explosive power at the top makes him a like-for-like replacement for Marsh at No. 3.
Australia might select another all-rounder to replace Marsh because they already have a lot of batting cover in the squad, including backup wicketkeeper Alex Carey.
With Marsh out of contention, Australia may need a new captain, which would include Steven Smith, who currently leads the Test team in Sri Lanka, Travis Head, and Josh Inglis. Cummins is also still doubtful for the tournament because of an ankle injury he sustained during the Test series against India.