Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign has hit a “worrying” early obstacle, with Mitchell Starc going down with an injury in their tournament-opener against Oman in Barbados.

Starc winced and immediately grabbed at his calf after sending down the first delivery of his fourth and final over.

Having set a target of 165 to win, Oman were 6-69 in the 15th over, still needing 96 to win. After a discussion with the team physio, Starc came from the field.

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“This is a worrying sign – Australia won’t want to tempt fate here if there’s any type of injury,” Mel McLaughlin said in commentary for Amazon Prime.

Former England Test captain Nasser Hussain agreed.

“Whether it’s cramp or he’s tweaked something – a tweak he obviously goes off, but even cramp, in this situation … I would not take a risk in any way.”

Former Australian Test opener Matthew Hayden said he hoped it was only a bad cramp.

“With the kind of form Mitchell Starc has been in, he’s such an important cog in the chain of Australia,” he said.

Glenn Maxwell bowled the rest of the over, and the Aussies would go on to win by 39 runs.

Earlier, Oman captain Aqib Ilyas snatched an early candidate for catch of the tournament to dismiss Glenn Maxwell for a first ball duck.

Maxwell smashed a cover drive off Mehran Khan that had looked to have a one-way ticket to the boundary, until Ilyas flew to his left to take the catch.

It left the Aussies in a somewhat precarious position at 3-50 in the ninth over.

But Maxwell’s wicket only brought Marcus Stoinis to the midde. With David Warner down the other end, the pair belted 102 off the next 10 overs to finish at 5-164.

After Warner fell for 56 in the 19th over, Stoinis and Tim David took 12 runs off the final seven balls. David was run-out off the final ball.

Starc struck in the first over of Oman’s chase when he trapped Pratik Athavale in front first ball. Initially given not-out, the Aussies successfully reviewed.

Starc looked to have a second two balls later when Ilyas was trapped in front. He was given out, but got a life when the ball was shown to have pitched outside leg-stump on review.

From there, Oman lost regular wickets and struggled to find any momentum. But, the Aussies were unable to bowl them out. The cricketing minnows ended their 20 overs at 9-125, 39 runs short.