Injury cloud over Mitchell Marsh for IPL participation

An injury to Australia allrounder Mitchell Marsh in Pakistan has added to Delhi Capitals' worries for the availability of their overseas players. Marsh was already going to miss Capitals' first three games because of the ODIs and one-off T20I he was picked for, starting Tuesday in Lahore, but the timing of his injury has put a question mark over his availability for the IPL.

If he is ruled out of the tournament, it will have a significant dent on Capitals' resources, who started their campaign with a thrilling victory against Mumbai Indians on Sunday. Capitals have only seven overseas players in their squad and they fielded only two of those against Mumbai due to availability constraints and injuries to other key players. Marsh and David Warner were originally scheduled to join Capitals after April 6.

Fast bowlers Lungi Ngidi and Mustafizur Rahman were part of the South Africa-Bangladesh ODI series recently and were in quarantine when Capitals played on Sunday, but their next game on April 2 gives the two bowlers enough time to join the squad.

The bigger concern for Capitals is Anrich Nortje's fitness. Even though he joined Capitals before the IPL started and was cleared of "serious injury," he has to undergo rehab and is likely to sit out the first few matches.

If he fails to recover from the injury in time, this will be the third straight season Marsh, who is 30, will miss out on playing in the IPL. In 2020, Marsh had hurt his ankle while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the first match and was ruled out for the rest of the season. Last IPL, he pulled out before the tournament started citing bubble fatigue, and was replaced by Jason Roy.

ESPNcricinfo has learnt the Capitals management is yet to get a formal update from Cricket Australia on Marsh's injury. Capitals had bought Marsh, who had listed his base price at the maximum of INR 2 crore (USD 267,000 approx) for INR 6.5 crore (US$ 866,000 approx.).