In response to questions about Bangladesh’s expulsion from the tournament and Pakistan’s boycott of their T20 World Cup match against India, Australia captain Mitchell Marsh stated that his only concern is winning the championship.
Following his team’s 0-3 T20 series loss to the host team in Lahore on Monday, Marsh was addressing the Pakistani media.
He was questioned about his thoughts on the off-field controversy that has clouded the build-up to the major event, which India and Sri Lanka will co-host beginning February 7, in addition to attempting to justify the performance of his team.
“I don’t have any comment on that at this point. We are going to the World Cup to just focus on what we are doing, we will let that stuff take care of itself,” he replied when asked what he thought of Pakistan’s boycott of the India match on February 15 in Colombo.
The reporters then questioned him on Bangladesh’s expulsion from the tournament due to their refusal to go to India due to “security concerns.” He also responded to the question with a dead bat.
“The same goes for my previous answer. We are going to the World Cup to try and win it and we are solely focussed on that. As the Australian team, we trust the people there to keep us safe and that’s all I would say,” he said.
Australia would play games against Sri Lanka, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and Oman starting on February 11 while based in Sri Lanka for the preliminary round.
The loss against Pakistan and the seeming poor spinner management in Lahore were minimized by Marsh. The spin troika of Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, and Abrar Ahmed, who took 17 wickets between them, tricked the visiting hitters in their three defeats.
“In isolation, this series, we struggled,” when questioned about the performance, Marsh acknowledged that it would be concerning because the World Cup is also set to take place in spin-friendly locations.
“But over the last 18 months, we’ve been one of the best teams in the world and we’ve played spin really well. So, we’ll take the learnings forward to the World Cup. We know we’re a very good side in all conditions, so looking forward to the World Cup,” he said.
“Some of the guys who haven’t experienced these conditions before will take these experiences forward in their careers.”
