Australia won the toss and elected to bat first against Ireland
Travis Head captaining Aussies amid Mitchell Marsh's absence
Ireland playing unchanged team from last game against Sri Lanka
A depleted Australian team won the toss and elected to bat first against Ireland in match 14 of ICC T20 World Cup 2026, at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Wednesday (February 11). The Aussies, playing their campaign opener are being led by stand-in skipper Travis Head as Mitchell Marsh was ruled out for the game due to a groin injury.
Marsh picked up the injury during training, leading to testicular bleeding. Though the regular Australia captain did his pre-match media conference as scheduled on Tuesday, news of his absence from the Ireland encounter came in only 15 minutes before the toss. Test team mainstay Steve Smith has been called in as cover for him.
Marsh was the latest addition to the Aussies' growing injury list. Pat Cummins is already out with injury, and so are Josh Hazlewood and Tim David. The Aussies had only 13 available players to pick their playing XI from, as no replacement has been announced for Hazlewood yet.
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Ireland, on the other hand, are unchanged from their previous game against Sri Lanka, which they lost by 20 runs.
Australia Vs Ireland, ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Playing XIs
Australia: Travis Head (c), Josh Inglis (wk), Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Cooper Connolly, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Nathan Ellis, Xavier Bartlett, Matthew Kuhnemann, Adam Zampa.
Ireland: Paul Stirling (c), Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, Benjamin Calitz, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Matthew Humphreys.
Australia Vs Ireland, ICC T20 World Cup 2026: Squads
Australia: Travis Head (c), Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Cooper Connolly, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Nathan Ellis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Adam Zampa, Ben Dwarshuis, Xavier Bartlett, Tim David
Ireland: Paul Stirling (c), Ross Adair, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), Curtis Campher, Benjamin Calitz, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Barry McCarthy, Matthew Humphreys, Tim Tector, Joshua Little, Benjamin White, Craig Young
