Australia's T20I opening pair locked in, confirms captain Marsh as T20 WC 2026 nears

Canberra [Australia], August 8 (ANI): Australia T20I captain Mitchell Marsh confirmed that they have locked in the opening pair in the lead up to next year's T20I World Cup, set to be held in India and Sri Lanka.

Australia will begin its preparations for the marquee event with a three-match T20I series against South Africa, scheduled to kick off on Sunday. Marsh confirmed that he will take the mantle to open Australia's batting order and will form a formidable pair with Travis Head.

During the 2021 T20 World Cup, Marsh featured in the number three spot, a move that proved to be a masterstroke. The burly all-rounder orchestrated a Player of the Match performance in the final to steer the Baggy Greens to their first T20 World Cup title.

But now, the 33-year-old declared that he will retain his spot at the top after opening the five consecutive games against the West Indies last month. Marsh and Head have never opened in the shortest format together.

"It'll be myself and Heady up the top for the foreseeable future. Obviously, we've played a lot together, (we've) got a great relationship, so (we'll) start there," Marsh told reporters in Darwin on Friday as quoted from cricket.com.au.

Including Marsh and Head, Australia have tried and tested five openers in the format since David Warner had his last dance after last year's Caribbean World Cup. Marsh remained tight-lipped about the appearance of the rest of the batting unit but confirmed there were discussions about Tim Davind's place.

Last month, David unleashed havoc with his blistering strokeplay in the third T20I against the Caribbean side. He put up a masterclass on exhibition and hammered a 37-ball century, the fastest T20I ton for Australia.

"We've spoken about it ... we saw that in the Caribbean, that he came in earlier than he would normally. His skill set is made for that. The more balls he faces, hopefully the more games he wins for us," Marsh said.

Australia T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Owen, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa. (ANI)

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