Marcus Stoinis - (Source: X.com)
In a significant development, Australia have dealt a heavy blow as their star all-rounder Marcus Stoinis has walked off the field with injury. Notably, the 36-year-old took a nasty blow to his wrist off his own bowling in the 16th over of the first innings.
In the ongoing match between Zimbabwe and Australia at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, Stoinis bowled a full-toss to Ryan Burl, who whacked a shot straight down the ground, which hit Stoinis on his wrist.
The player was in immense pain and the physios rushed to the field and took the player out of the ground within no time. It is likely that the all-rounder will visit a hospital for scans.
Australia Troubled by Loads of Injury concerns
Australia are already dealing with a lot of injury concerns and the Men in Yellow cannot afford to lose another player with injury. At present, Australia are without Josh Hazlewood, who was ruled out even before the start of the tournament.
Further, Tim David missed the first game due to injury, but returned to the team for the ongoing match against Zimbabwe. Other than them, regular skipper Mitchell Marsh is also unavailable because of a freak injury.
Marsh is yet to play a solitary game in this tournament as he suffered a testicular injury during training before Ireland match. Therefore, it is expected that Australia might soon name Steve Smith as Marsh's replacement for the rest of the tournament.
“He is experiencing ongoing pain and discomfort, which is restricting his movement,” CA said in a statement on Wednesday evening, just minutes before the toss for the Australia-Ireland clash.
Therefore, at present, with Stoinis' injury, Australia only have 11 proper fit players, which is a similar situation for them such as 2025 Champions Trophy, where they had to deal with a lot of injuries.
Will Australia miss Marcus Stoinis for T20 World Cup match vs Zimbabwe?
Notably, in the ongoing match, at the time of writing this article, Zimbabwe put 169/2 on the board, their highest total in the history of the T20Is against the Kangaroos. The Sikandar Raza-led side would have scored much more, but Marcus Stoinis was the one who took the first wicket and draw the first blood for his side.
Marcus Stoinis got Marumani out, who scored 35 (21), which featured seven fours, striking at a rate of 168.67. Overall, Stoinis has played two games in this edition, and Aussies will miss him with the bat. Notably, he scored 45 runs against Ireland, which were crucial runs.
Now, Australia are in deep trouble because they have lost an early wicket against Zimbabwe and now it is not sure whether Stoinis will walk to bat or not.
For the unversed, Australia and Zimbabwe have played thrice in T20I history, and met just once in T20 World Cups. However, the Men in Yellow have never defeated Zimbabwe in the T20 World Cup history.
