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Travis Head Or Glenn Maxwell - Marsh Reveals Ideal Opening Partner For T20 WC 2026

Rajgeeta Yadav

Australia probable T20 opening pair [Source: AFP]Australia probable T20 opening pair [Source: AFP]

Australia T20I captain Mitchell Marsh has pretty much confirmed who will open the batting for the team in the lead-up to and during the 2026 T20 World Cup, which will be hosted in India and Sri Lanka.

Australia’s Likely Opening Pair Revealed

Marsh said he and Travis Head will be the go-to opening pair for the foreseeable future. Even though the two haven’t opened together in T20 Internationals before, they have had huge success opening in One Day Internationals (ODIs), averaging over 50 runs per partnership and scoring at a blistering pace of more than 12 runs an over in their eight innings together.

"It'll be myself and Heady up the top for the foreseeable future. Obviously we've played a lot together, (we've) got a great relationship, so (we'll) start there,” Marsh told reporters ahead of the T20I series against South Africa.

Marsh’s own T20I record as an opener for Australia is modest, just 98 runs from six innings, averaging 16.33. He’s been far more effective batting at number three, with 1,276 runs from 40 innings, averaging 37.53 at a strike rate of 142.6.

However, his recent form at the top of the order in franchise cricket has been outstanding. In the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL), he smashed 627 runs for Lucknow Super Giants at an average of 48.23 and a strike rate of 163.7.

In the recent T20I series against West Indies, Glenn Maxwell opened alongside Marsh, scoring 141 runs in five innings at an average of 43.80. But that was only because Travis Head wasn’t available, and the team was testing different combinations.

Since David Warner retired after the 2024 T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, Australia has tried several players as openers, Marsh, Head, Mattew Short, Maxwell, and Jake Fraser-McGurk.

While Marsh didn’t reveal the rest of the playing XI for the first T20 against South Africa, he did confirm that discussions are ongoing about Tim David’s place in the batting order.

The first two T20Is against South Africa will be played in Darwin on August 10 and 12, with the final match in Cairns on August 16. The teams will then move on to a three-match ODI series starting August 19.