*LONDON – Ahead of their ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019 semi-finalfixture against England, Australia’s Usman Khawaja and Marcus Stoinis arefacing fitness doubts.*
Top-order batsman Khawaja, and all-rounder Stoinis, suffered injuries inAustralia’s 10-run loss to South Africa, their final league game, inManchester. The injury concerns come less than a week before the AaronFinch-led side takes on England, in their semi-final fixture on 11 July.Wicket-keeper batsman Matthew Wade and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh have beencalled up as cover for the two injured players.
Khawaja’s services at No 3 were required as early as the third over inAustralia’s chase of 326. However, five balls into his innings, atroublesome hamstring issue forced Khawaja to leave the field retired hurt,with the score reading 20-1.
“Usman’s not looking great, in all honesty,” Australia captain Aaron Finchlater told reporters. “He’s done a couple of hammies before and he said itfeels similar to that. So, in terms of replacements, we haven’t had time tosit down and talk about that yet.”
With 51 needed in less than five overs, and with seven wickets down, ahobbling Khawaja braved the injury to re-enter the field, and continue hisinnings. He added 12 more runs to his initial score of six, beforedirecting an intended ramp stroke onto his own stumps.
“He did not aggravate it anymore when he got back out there,” Finchcontinued. “He wanted to go out. Once we got as close as we did, having abatter was crucial. It did not work, but he has put the team first, whichis a brilliant quality to have.”
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Earlier, Marcus Stoinis appeared in discomfort while fielding, as well asbatting, requiring treatment during his 34-ball 22.
“Marcus is a bit sore in his side. We’ll have to wait for scans tomorrow toknow the finer details of it. Obviously, it is tough to talk aboutreplacements when you haven’t got the full story and the full scan, sowe’ll get that tomorrow,” Finch added.
Stoinis had earlier sustained a side strain during their clash againstIndia, on 9 June, and subsequently missed two of Australia’s league games.Mitchell Marsh was flown in as cover, before Stoinis recovered to rejoinAustralia’s XI.
