The West Australian missed Australia’s last four warm-up matches for the tournament after a twinge following a one-dayer against India in Mohali, but pushed his case for selection by training strongly under lights at the Chepauk nets on Thursday night.
Stoinis was due to have another hitout on match eve, but captain Pat Cummins said on Saturday that the veteran was “touch and go” to play.
“He’s gonna have a run out this afternoon, but probably up against it,” Cummins said.
The skipper said the Aussies would announce their XI at the toss on Sunday in Chennai but with Stoinis poised to miss out, Australia is likely to enter the match with the same top seven that played against Pakistan in a warm-up match at Hyderabad on Tuesday.
That would mean Cameron Green batting at No. 7 behind Alex Carey and Glenn Maxwell, and the inclusion of big three quicks Cummins, Starc and Josh Hazlewood.
Stoinis is not the only Aussie to have been nursed in recent weeks, with leg-spinner Adam Zampa having been used sparingly in the last lot of warm-up matches and at training.
Zampa pulled up sore during the three-match one-day series against India but Cummins insisted the leggie was right to go.
It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing though for Zampa, who is sporting a gash on his face.
“He swam into the pool wall apparently, he said,” Cummins explained with some amusement.
“He had his eyes closed and thought he was swimming in a straight line and swam straight into the step of the pool, so looks impressive.
“He’s all good, just a little bit sore so had a pretty quiet week too but he’s right to go.”
Cummins reiterated the view of selection chair George Bailey that all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was capable of being played as a genuine frontline spinner and regularly bowling the maximum allotment of 10 overs.
“Yeah, I think so. You know, again, it’s good that we got plenty of bowling but yeah, we see Maxi as a frontline spin bowler. In the 2015 World Cup he was our sole spinner basically,” Cummins said.
“So really happy with how he is going, thought he bowled really well in that third ODI against India. So yeah, we’ve got 20 overs of spin out there if we need it.
“He’s always working on some things. So yeah, even if it’s not variations, it’s different fields different ways you bowl. And yeah, I think with Asian experience as well you just get a bit more clever and you need that as a spin bowler. He’s got an amazing knack that if he misses out with the bat he contributes with the ball and vice versa. He’s always in the game so expecting a big tournament from Maxi.”
STOINIS CLEARED AS POMS EMBARRASSED IN OPENER
Marcus Stoinis gave Australian selectors plenty to ponder with an impressive bowling performance at training on Thursday night.
Pushing to prove his fitness for the Aussies’ World Cup opener, Stoinis was put through his paces with the new ball in the nets under the watchful eye of team physio Nick Jones.
He passed with flying colours.
Stoinis missed Australia’s last four warm-up matches after he hurt his hamstring and had faced an uphill battle to be included in the XI to play India in Chennai.
But gradually building his run-up, Stoinis repeatedly troubled Marnus Labuschagne and took his off-stump during a bowling stint of around 40 minutes, with Aussie coach Andrew McDonald among the interested onlookers.
The all-rounder then batted for more than 40 minutes, getting throw downs from assistant coaches Michael Di Venuto and Daniel Vettori.
With McDonald having earlier declared Labuschagne a lock to face India, Stoinis appears to be fighting fellow West Australian Cameron Green for a spot in the Australian middle order although McDonald said they could conceivably fit into the same side.
“Over the last 18 months, we’ve had a pretty clear way that we want to sort of build three ways of playing,” McDonald said.
“And one of those ways is definitely with all the all-rounders and potentially two quicks and you’ve seen that side in the past 18 months be played. So there is a real possibility that both of those players can be in the same XI and we haven’t ruled that out.
“There’s plenty of ways (of putting together a team). You can change your batting line-up, you can change the structure. So behind the scenes, we’re pretty clear on the way that we want to go about it and that’ll be surface dependent and clearly body dependent as well.
“The World Cup, it’s a long campaign, there’s no doubt going to be some sore bodies at certain times. And we feel as though with the squad that we’ve got we’ve got great flexibility, albeit at the moment obviously Travis Head, sitting and waiting to see where he’s at. That’ll give us greater scope to shift and manoeuvre the side to the way that we have over the last eight months.”
Glenn Maxwell did not field as the Aussies seek to manage his workload following his recent ankle troubles, a complication of the broken leg he suffered last year.
McDonald was buoyant about Maxwell’s ability to get through the seven-week tournament.
“Yes, so far, so good. That Pakistan (warm-up) game the way that he pulled up on the back of that was really positive,” McDonald said.
“And we‘ve got some decent gaps in between (games) as well, which is unlike the sort of bilateral series where it’s quite condensed with short turnarounds, in a World Cup you’ve got a bit more space, a bit more time for recovery. So we feel as though he’ll be able to cope with the demands of what the World Cup presents.”
Kiwis smash defending champions England in World Cup opener
-AFP
Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra smashed centuries to power New Zealand to a crushing nine-wicket win over defending champions England in the opening match of the World Cup on Thursday.
England, who were without talismanic Ben Stokes due to a hip injury, were restricted to 282-9 after the Kiwis elected to bowl at the world’s biggest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad.
The left-handed pair of Conway (152) and Ravindra (123) then put on an unbeaten stand of 273 for the second wicket as the Black Caps comfortably overhauled the target with 13.4 overs to spare.
The result was a contrast to the epic World Cup final at Lord’s in 2019 between the two teams when England won a tied match on boundary count back.
New Zealand, led by Tom Latham in the absence of regular skipper Kane Williamson, kept England down to a below-par total despite Joe Root’s 77.
Ravindra and Conway made short work of the target as they smashed the opposition bowlers all around the ground after losing Will Young early to left-arm quick Sam Curran.
Conway hit the first ton of the tournament off 83 balls studded with 13 fours and two sixes and soon reached 1,000 runs in 23 ODI matches.
The 23-year-old Ravindra quickly followed with his maiden ODI century off 82 balls with nine fours and four sixes, raising his bat to acknowledge the smattering of fans inside the 132,000-capacity arena.
Conway surpassed his previous best of 138 as he and Ravindra pummelled the bowlers for an emphatic win which also provided an early boost to their net run-rate.
Earlier, fast bowler Matt Henry returned figures of 3-48 for the New Zealand while spinners Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips took two wickets each.
Dawid Malan and Jonny Bairstow gave England a brisk start but Malan fell, caught behind off Henry and Bairstow’s knock was cut short by Santner, who got the batsman out for 33 off his left-arm spin.
Harry Brook took on Ravindra in the left-arm spinner’s first over to smash two fours and a six before the bowler had his revenge on the final delivery.
Brook, coming into the starting line-up for Stokes, attempted another big hit and was caught at deep mid-wicket.
Root reached his 37th ODI half-century off 57 balls, an innings laced with two fours and one six off a reverse scoop shot.
But he fell to Phillips’ off-spin while attempting a reverse sweep and England slipped further before Adil Rashid (15) and Mark Wood (13) ensured the team played out their 50 overs with an unbeaten stand of 30.
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