Life without Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood: Marsh backs Australia's bowling attack |

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Australia captain Mitchell Marsh has backed his inexperienced bowling lineup to step up during the T20 World Cup 2026 in the absence of star trio Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. Starc retired from the format last year, Cummins and Hazlewood were ruled out of the tournament as they failed to shake off their respective injuries. Cummins decided to preserve himself for Tests while Hazlewood was deemed not to attain match fitness even by the time the Super 8 phase started.

This will be the first time the Aussies head to a World Cup without the famous big three, meaning that Nathan Ellis will lead the pace attack and be supported by Ben Dwarshius and Xavier Bartlett. Speaking ahead of their tournament opener against Ireland, Marsh said that he has confidence in the group as they have been playing regularly for Australia in the format over the course of the last year.

“Yeah, look, guys like Paddy have played a lot for us over the last few years due to his hectic schedule and over the last 12 months guys like Benny Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett have played pretty much all of our games. So we’ve got great confidence that they’ve been able to do a role for us, and they’ve excelled in some games. So we’re confident with the group that we’ve got here. And we’ve built that for the last 12 months,” said Marsh.

The Aussie skipper said that they were able to provide to game time to their core group over the last 12 months and it will come in handy during the T20 World Cup.

“We’ve sort of built out a squad of maybe 18 to 20 people that have played over the last 12 months and we’ve got game time to all of them. They’ve all faced different situations in matches and whilst some of them haven’t played a lot for Australia, they’ve played a lot of cricket and we’ve got great confidence that they’re going to be able to do the job for us,” said Marsh.

SPIN TO WIN FOR AUSTRALIA?

Australia will be playing all their group stage matches in Colombo, where teams have been using spin to win. The recent Sri Lanka vs Ireland game saw 25 out of the 40 overs bowled by spinners and Marsh admitted it is something they will look to implement as well.

“Didn’t think that we’d get turned a lot, but we certainly know the conditions that we’re going to be faced with. And I think most teams will have, I guess, similar ideas on how they’re going to go about it. So we’re prepared for that and we’re ready to go,” said Marsh.

Australia will face Ireland in their first game on February 11.

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Published On:

Feb 10, 2026

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