Glenn Maxwell is relishing the prospect of Marcus Stoinis returning on Thursday, admitting the allrounder's absence has proven a setback for Australia.
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Stoinis has been retained in Australia's 15-man World Cup squad after showing good progress in his recovery from a side strain.
The 29-year-old, who was unable to take part in victories over Pakistan and Sri Lanka, is a strong chance of making his comeback against Bangladesh at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
The lack of an allrounder has give Maxwell more opportunity to bowl during the past week but hurt the overall team balance.
"Having a top six or seven batter who can bowl any number of overs for you, they're a key person to lose," Maxwell said on SEN radio.
"That probably set us back a little bit.
"When you replace him with a specialist batter or specialist bowler, you're going to lose one or the other. That's been our challenge, to try and cover that."
Maxwell delivered seven overs against Pakistan then his full allotment against Sri Lanka.
The Victorian shouldered the burden of being Australia's frontline spinner during their triumphant 2015 World Cup campaign.
Maxwell has performed that same role in the absence of Stoinis, with Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon both overlooked during the past week.
However, that trend is likely to end whenever Stoinis returns.
"As much as I love to bowl ... to be relied on to bowl 10 is not always the easiest thing for an offspinner. Especially an offspinner with no tricks or anything like that," the 30-year-old said.
"It'd nice to have him (Stoinis) there.
"He's an impact bowler. He's able to control things, we saw what he can do at the death against West Indies.
"We can only cross fingers and hope he can get back to full health and be that option for us again."
Maxwell, who has scored 98 runs at 32.6 during the World Cup, described his batting as "up and down".
"It'd be nice to go on and get a decent score ... I missed a big opportunity against Pakistan. That was the one innings I was a bit frustrated with," he said.
"I feel like I've been hitting the ball well ... I've been building throughout the tournament, which is a nice thing. I haven't gone backwards at all."
Australian Associated Press
