NEW DELHI: Wayne Madsen on Sunday admitted it would be “a struggle” for him to return for Italy’s T20 World Cup fixture against England as he continues to recover from a dislocated left shoulder. He added that a more realistic return could come later in the week against West Indies.
Italy, who secured their first ever World Cup win in the previous game, face England in a crucial Group C contest on Monday with the race for the Super Eights intensifying.
Madsen suffered the injury in the fourth over of Italy’s tournament opener against Scotland and subsequently missed their match against Nepal.
“I’ve obviously sort of tried to push as much as possible over the last couple of days, let it settle and push. It hasn’t actually reacted that well in the last 24 hours, so I think tomorrow is probably going to be a struggle,” Madsen said at Eden Gardens on the eve of the clash.
“We’ll see how things go over the next few days. But when you pick up an injury, a dislocation like that, it’s all down to symptoms and unfortunately hasn’t quite recovered as well as I would have liked.
“But we’ve obviously still got Thursday to look at and see how things go over the next few days.”
Italy embracing the World Cup stage
After a heavy defeat to Scotland in their opener, Italy bounced back in style with a dominant 10 wicket victory over Nepal, marking their maiden World Cup win.
“In terms of the World Cup experience, I think we are really embracing it as a team. We know it comes with its challenges and its ups and downs,” he said.
“I think there was a lot of emotion, a lot of energy and enjoyment in what we did at the Wankhede. And we’ve had a nice few days off to be able to sort of recover, re energize, and refocus.
“For us to compete with the bigger teams, we have to throw punches. We can’t just take punches. So we have to be the ones making plays and we have to be aggressive in how we play our cricket.”
Asked about facing power packed sides like England and West Indies, Madsen stressed the importance of clarity in execution.
“We know they have a lot of quality throughout their team but for us it’s really focusing on our game plans and just being clear in the mind in terms of the options guys will take and we’re pretty clear in terms of that side of things and the messaging within our playing group.”
“We’re not just here to come and make up numbers, we’re here to perform and to win games of cricket. We’re going to do everything in our power tomorrow to do that.
“Yes, we’re playing against a really good outfit, but so are we, and we back our abilities as a group of players and as a collective group we’ve got a real team spirit and ethos about us at the moment that’s exciting to be a part of. So in terms of your question, could we do it again? Of course we can.”
Mosca brothers script history
Italy’s landmark win over Nepal was powered by the Mosca brothers, Justin Mosca and Anthony Mosca, who remained unbeaten on 60 and 62 respectively.
Their unbroken 124 run partnership became the first century stand by siblings in T20 World Cup history and the highest sibling partnership in all T20 Internationals.
“What the Mosca brothers did for us at the Wankhede, I mean, that was a truly, truly special partnership that they put on. And we’ve touched on it, how well the team played as a whole. We were brilliant in the field. And with the ball, we executed our plans exceptionally well,” Madsen said.
Funding and future hopes
The skipper also pointed to the ongoing challenges faced by Associate nations, particularly in terms of funding and exposure.
“For us a big thing is to do with exposure and funding, being able to sort of travel as a team and play these matches and series and tournaments. It’s not as easy because we don’t necessarily have a lot of funding. We are hoping to get more through sponsorships and funding from our performances.
“That’s part of what we’re doing here at the World Cup. We’re putting our name on the map and saying we are good enough and we want to be playing more series and competitions against some of the top associates and even some of the full member teams.”
On reports that the Italian board is in discussions with the Board of Control for Cricket in India for support, Madsen said he was unaware of any concrete developments.
“That is probably above my pay grade. No, no, I know as much as you in terms of that regard. Any discussions I’m sure will be had at board level around that sort of stuff. So that would be fantastic if the – I’m sure – I’d like to hope that the discussions are there and we would be obviously really grateful for any support that we could get around developing the game in Italy.”
(With PTI Inputs)
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