Key bowlers Mitchell Starc and Brad Hogg were rested from Australia team training ahead of Saturday’s World Twenty20 Group B clash with West Indies.
Starc had a gastro complaint and Hogg a headache.
Left-arm quick Starc, 22, and left-arm wrist-spinner Hogg, 41, took three wickets between them as Australia began their World T20 campaign with a comfortable victory over Ireland on Wednesday night.
Both were taking things easy at the team’s hotel on Thursday night, isolated from the rest of the squad. However a team spokesman said both were expected to be fit for Saturday’s game.
Australia’s four squad members not selected for Wednesday’s opening match — pace duo Clint McKay and Ben Hilfenhaus, spinner Xavier Doherty and allrounder David Hussey — could all come into calculations should Hogg and Starc fail to recover.
McKay’s solid form in the two warm-up games against New Zealand and England would probably put him ahead of Hilfenhaus in the pecking order to replace Starc while Hussey’s status as a batting allrounder may give him an advantage over Doherty.
Australia coach Mickey Arthur is keen for his side to bat deep and is banking on having lots of wickets in hand in the middle overs to enable his batsmen to take risks against spinner Sunil Narine.
Australia’s struggles against Pakistan offspinner Saeed Ajmal — who took six wickets at an average of 8.67 in the three-game series in Dubai earlier this month — have underlined to Arthur the need to have batsmen in the shed.
Arthur is also heartened by offspinner Narine’s failure to take a wicket against Australia in the two-game T20 series in the West Indies in March.
“It’s really tough for the new batter to start against that but if you’re in there is the possibility to put him under some pressure,” Arthur said on Thursday.
“We made some progress against him in the West Indies. He’s always going to be a factor, like Ajmal and Ajantha Mendis for Sri Lanka.
“If we can put him under just a little bit of pressure and that’s something we haven’t been able to do with the spinners, we’ve always been a couple of wickets down.
“You’re always able to tell the ilk of a bowler when he is under pressure.”
Narine claimed 11 Australian wickets at 14.45 in the one-day series in March.