New Delhi: Opening Australian batter Matthew Short is likely to miss the Champions Trophy semifinal match due to an injury. Australia will play their semifinal either against India or New Zealand in the semifinals next week and Short, who suffered a quad injury in Friday’s washed out match against Afghanistan remains doubtful.
Short scored 20 runs off 15 balls in the game in Lahore and while he was batting, he looked in visible pain before getting dismissed by Azmatullah Omarzai as the Aussies advanced to the semifinals with four points. The 29-year-old bater had scored 63 runs as Australia chased down England’s massive 351-run mark in their opening match of the ICC event.
Smith unsure of Short’s participation
Steve Smith said he didn’t think the star opener would be fit to play in next week’s semifinal. ‘I think he’ll be struggling. I think we saw tonight he wasn’t moving very well. I think it’s probably going to be too quick between games for him to recover,’ Smith was quoted as saying on Prime Video by Australian Associated Press (AAP).
The replacement for Short is yet to be named but it looks like Australia could include hitter Jake Fraser-McGurk, which seems as a like-for-like replacement in the playing XI. McGurk suffered couple of failure in the recent one-day series in Sri Lanka. Aaron Hardie also features among the probable names who could come in as a replacement for Short.
The team also has a travelling reserve in form of Cooper Connolly in case the batter gets ruled out. Speaking on the replacement, Smith said that they have a few names who could fill in for the job.
Australia will either play the semifinal against India in Dubai on Tuesday or against New Zealand on Wednesday in Lahore, as their opponents will only be known after Sunday’s group clash between Rohit Sharma’s side and the Black Caps in Dubai.
(With PTI inputs)
The replacement for Matthew Short is yet to be named but it looks like Australia could include Jake Fraser-McGurk, which seems as a like-for-like replacement in the playing XI. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
