Australia, the 2021 champions, were the last of the 20 teams to get their tournament under way and arrived in Sri Lanka with questions over the form and fitness of their squad after a bruising 3-0 series defeat by Pakistan.
Already without the likes of Cummins and Hazelwood from their bowling attack, their injury concerns were exacerbated by the absence of captain Mitchell Marsh with the 34-year-old suffering “testicular bleeding” after being struck in the groin area while receiving throw downs during a training session on Sunday.
For their opener at least, there were no signs of the predicted gloom.
Even without their skipper and Tim David, Australia were still able to select a top three who had all featured in the Test side’s dominant Ashes victory over England this winter.
Travis Head, Josh Inglis and Cameron Green all contributed to Australia going at a rate better than 10 an over through the powerplay, though all three were gone by the seventh over.
Head, standing in as captain, was run out for only six after facing seven balls, while sharp catches from George Dockrell and Stirling accounted for Green (21) and Inglis (37) – an especially welcome development for Heinrich Malan’s side after the fielding miscues that proved so costly against Sri Lanka.
Ireland were still far from perfect in that regard though, again to the detriment of Matthew Humphreys who barely acknowledged the first wicket of his tournament when he bowled Matt Renshaw to break the Middlesbrough-born 29-year-old’s key 61-run partnership with Marcus Stoinis for Australia’s fifth wicket.
Given the slow surface in use for a second time in four days, Australia’s total of 182 always felt a good return, aided in no small part by their hard work between the wickets as they ran 22 twos.
