PAK vs AUS: Right before their tour of Pakistan, Australia suffered a massive blow as their ODI captain, Mitchell Marsh, was ruled out of the series. Marsh is yet another big name to miss the tour in the Asian nation, after the pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc decided to skip the tour. Meanwhile, Travis Head is also missing the tour owing to his participating the IPL 2026 playoffs. The current World Champions would now be led by Josh Inglis in Marsh’s absence. Inglis, who missed the earlier part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026, opened the innings alongside Mitchell Marsh for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).
PAK vs AUS: Why is Mitchell Marsh ruled out of Australia tour of Pakistan?
Mitchell Marsh did not participate in the Lucknow Super Giants’ Saturday IPL season finale versus the Punjab Kings. After LSG’s game against the Rajasthan Royals on 19th May, Marsh caught a flight to Australia. He was set to lead Australia as captain in the three-match series against Pakistan starting on 30th May, with most of the players reaching Rawalpindi on the weekend. But Marsh’s ankle injury prevented him from going to Pakistan since he had gotten very serious ankle injuries before. Because of this, he is totally not available for the Pakistan series. It is unclear if he will be available for the three-match T20I tour that begins on June 17 and the three-match ODI series in Bangladesh that begins on June 9.
PAK vs AUS: Josh Inglis to captain Australia in Mitchell Marsh’s absence
With regular captain Cummins and Test joint vice-captain Head out of the series, Marsh’s unavailability has forced Australia to rely on Inglis, their fourth-choice ODI captain. In November 2024, Inglis captained Australia in three Twenty20 Internationals and an ODI against Pakistan. Alex Carey, who led Australia in three ODIs in the Caribbean in 2021, is another contender for leadership in the event that Inglis is unable to play. Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc are also absent from Australia due to Pakistan. Although Cooper Connolly, Xavier Bartlett, and Ben Dwarshuis were supposed to play in the IPL playoffs, their side, the Kings, lost six of their previous seven games to be excluded from the Pakistan series.
PAK vs AUS: Australia ODI Squad
Alex Carey, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Inglis (C), Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Riley Meredith, Ollie Peake, Matthew Renshaw, Tanveer Sangha, Liam Scott, Matthew Short, Billy Stanlake, Adam Zampa
Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.
