Former Indian player Aakash Chopra has seen the biggest weakness of the Australian team traveling to India for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 in the form of possible injuries to their marquee players like captain Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood.
Australia has been seriously affected by injuries, and any further announcement has frightened the Australian selectors. They already have a set of injuries to deal with in the form of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, as their availability is yet to be confirmed by Cricket Australia, and as of now, they are only on the road to recovery.
The situation became worse for both the stars as all-rounder Marcus Stoinis also suffered an injury during the BBL game. However, his scans later came back normal, and the player was cleared to continue in the BBL, thus keeping his ICC T20 World Cup participation on track.
“The biggest weakness I see is that a lot of players are prone to injury” – Aakash Chopra
Former Indian player Aakash Chopra has talked about the potential injuries in the Australian camp on his YouTube channel and termed it as their biggest known weakness at the moment.
He highlighted the fact that, along with players like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Marcus Stoinis, their captain Mitchell Marsh is also at injury risk.
“The biggest weakness I see is that a lot of players are injured. Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green and Glenn Maxwell are being talked about. There are a lot of people. Marsh himself is also injured,” he said via his YouTube channel.
He added, “They are walking on eggshells. They are just one injury away from everything going wrong. So you can definitely call that one of the weaknesses of this team because no one can control injuries.”
Aakash Chopra feels Mitchell Starc’s retirement could impact the death bowling of Mitchell Marsh-led Australian team
In the opinion of Aakash Chopra, the Mitchell Marsh-led Australian team may face a lot of trouble with fast bowling in the death overs, as the experienced campaigner Mitchell Starc is no longer part of the Australian squad going to Sri Lanka for the tournament.
He said, “Death bowling can be a bit of a concern. Josh Hazlewood can handle the new ball, Pat Cummins will come in the middle, but they will miss Mitchell Starc later on. There is no bowler like Starc in the World T20.”
Australia’s two other reliable options in death bowling are Nathan Ellis and Josh Hazlewood; However, Ellis has never felt the heat and pressure of a World Cup game before, and Hazlewood may succumb to his injuries, for which he has yet to be cleared.
“He (Starc) can always be the big difference, but his absence will put a bit more pressure on Nathan Ellis and a lot more focus on Josh Hazlewood’s fitness. They will be stuck then. They won’t be able to do the job for Xavier Bartlett and at the World Cup level,” Chopra said.
Aakash Chopra believes Australia lack a backup to Josh Inglis and another reliable spinner
The former India player also mentioned that the Australian team is completely without any backup for Josh Inglis, who is the only wicketkeeper in the team. Earlier, speculations had claimed that Glenn Maxwell could be used as the wicketkeeper in case of inevitable injury.
Chopra also admitted that the Mitchell Marsh-led side has a brilliant spinner in Adam Zampa, who is Australia’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is. However, he does not have as much confidence in the team’s other spinners Cooper Connolly or Matthew Kuhnman.
The Indian subcontinent will offer spin-friendly tracks, and for each team, their spinners will play a big role. Therefore, it seems clear that any injury can derail the Mitchell Marsh-led team’s campaign.
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