Australia will be without their power-hitter, Tim David, for their T20 World Cup 2026 opener against Ireland on Wednesday, February 11, at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Aussies will be the last team to open their campaign in the 20-team tournament as they play their opener four days after the World Cup began on February 7.
Ahead of their clash, captain Mitchell Marsh confirmed that David will be missing the opener as he would take a bit more time to recover from his hamstring injury, while fast bowler Nathan Ellis has been cleared to feature against Ireland after recovering from his own hamstring injury.
David has not been in action since the Big Bash League clash on December 26; however, he has been training with the Aussies regularly, barring the optional training session today.
Australia are scheduled to play two matches over the next three days, with the clash against Zimbabwe lined up on Friday. "We'll certainly see him come back into contention over the next few games," Marsh said on the pre-match press While Marsh stopped short of confirming his XI for the Ireland clash, David’s absence has opened the door for Matthew Renshaw to make his World Cup debut.
The left-handed middle-order batter was drafted into Australia’s T20 World Cup squad just 10 days ago following the omission of all-rounder Matt Short.
Australia are already missing out on key fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood due to injuries, with Mitchell Starc having retired from T20Is. Nathan Ellis will now be leading the pace attack that also features Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshuis.
"Over the past 12 months, guys like Benny Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett have played pretty much all our games, so we've got great confidence that they'll be able to do a role for us," Marsh said.
"We've built out a squad of maybe 18 to 20 people that have played over the past 12 months, and we've got game time for all of them.
"They've all faced different situations in matches, and while some of them haven't played a lot for Australia, they've played a lot of cricket and we've got great confidence … in the group that we've got here."
