Australia's fast-bowling all-rounder Marcus Stoinis revealed that fellow all-rounder Mitchell Marsh said in his parting message before flying back home due to personal reasons that he will be coming back to win the 2023 Men’s ODI World Cup.
Marsh has been ruled out of participating in Australia’s clash against England at the Narendra Modi Stadium after flying home to Perth for personal reasons, with no timeline for his return to the tournament.
This is a second big blow for Australia ahead of meeting England on the back of Glenn Maxwell being ruled out of Saturday’s clash after suffering a concussion during a golf day session with the team.
"He's got a family issue going on and like we all know, family is very important, the most important (thing) really. He's doing the right thing and he's getting home and he's seeing the people he needs to see. I don't think there's a timeline on when he's coming back, but I'm sure he'll do what he needs to do at home and then get back."
"He sent me a message last night saying, 'I'll be home for a little bit and then I'm coming back to win this World Cup' so that speaks to his mindset I think. You miss him off the field in terms of his energy and his personality around the team as much as we're going to miss him on the field – but you can pretty much see how the team’s going to line-up (without him)."
"I joked with him that he just passes the overs back to me now – and ‘thanks for that’. You know that the bases are covered, but we will miss him, and he'll be back soon," Stoinis was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Stoinis himself has been affected by hamstring, quad and calf niggles since last month and is now pushing for a recall in the clash against England. "I've been spoken to about maybe training too much there. That's just part of training, especially over here in India."
"You’ve got the facilities all the time, you’ve got net bowlers, it's been part of how I train in the IPL, which has helped me a lot. It has been mixture of a few things, plus probably a bit of just enjoying it. (Injuries) are more just frustrating, but luckily, I'm at an age now where I've dealt with a few of them."
"There's been moving parts. It hasn't been the smoothest campaign and we've gone from losing the first couple to now sitting in the top four. It always feels good when you walk towards the finals and boys start coming back into the team. We saw it with Heady last game, so it could be our secret weapon," he concluded.