ICC Cricket World Cup 2023: Injured Marcus Stoinis doubtful for Australia's first match against India

Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis might not play their opening game of World Cup 2023 against India.

Marcus Stoinis, the ace Australian all-rounder, is doubtful for his team’s ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 opening match due to an injury. Australia will play India in Chennai on October 8 to start their World Cup campaign.

This was confirmed by Australian head coach Andrew McDonald during a press conference. McDonald revealed that Marcus Stoinis had suffered the injury during the first ODI between India and Australia, which was played in Mohali two weeks ago.

He was rested for the next two ODIs and also missed both the warm-up games that Australia played. It is still unknown when he’ll regain full fitness, but McDonald said that he was working his way back slowly.

"That happened after the Mohali game he pulled up a little bit sore. And then further investigation led to that being a slight hamstring strain. And then he's just rehabbing. As I said, he'll touch and go for game one. He certainly hasn't been ruled out, but we weren't prepared to take risks in those practice games. So he's probably been slow; he played a little bit with the view to these next couple of days being really important for him to press for selection for game one, and we'll see how that unfolds,” McDonald was quoted by Cricbuzz.

Stoinis is one of five all-rounders in Australian squad, with all of them expected to play important roles in their quest for a sixth World Cup title.

His is more workload management: Andrew McDonald on Adam Zampa’s fitness

Australia coach also spoke about spinner Adam Zampa’s fitness as well. Zampa is the lone specialist spinner in Australian squad after Ashton Agar failed to get fit and was replaced by Marnus Labuschagne.

"Zampa is not as big of a concern. There is more workload management. He did pull up sore from the second game in the ODI series, but nothing significant. Marcus Stoinis is a little bit different. He's got a slight hamstring complaint at this stage. So that's why he missed the practice games, and he'll be touch and go for the first game against India. We've got the main session today and then another one tomorrow. He'll go through his work there, and we'll see whether he's available for selection for game one, but at the moment he wasn't fit and available for those practice games,” McDonald added.