Australian captain Aaron Finch’s T20 World Cup dream is not dead after selection boss George Bailey said he’d be given every chance to play Afghanistan on Friday night despite suffering a hamstring injury.
Finch went through a gentle fitness test at training in Adelaide on Wednesday alongside Tim David, who is also under an injury cloud for Australia’s must-win final pool game.
The pair did a series of run-throughs and Finch also stretched the hamstring he hurt in Monday’s win over Ireland that forced him to leave the field early.
Bailey said the pair were “pretty good” but couldn’t lock them in or out for the clash.
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David didn’t field at all against Ireland, but Bailey said both would be given every opportunity to prove their fitness.
Marcus Stoinis, who also left the Gabba early on Monday night with injury, is expected to be fit.
“We will keep assessing them over the next 48 hours,” Bailey said on Wednesday,
“Stoin (Stoinis) … is good to go, the other two are actually pretty good, they are moving pretty well out there today.
“I haven’t had a chance to grab our medical staff … and I trust the information that Finchy will give us.
“We will give it the time it needs.”
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Matthew Wade is expected to captain the team should Finch not come up, with Cameron Green or Steve Smith potential replacements in the batting line-up.
“There’s a bit going on now with this game isn’t there now with last night’s result, so we’ll obviously work through a few scenarios with Net Run-Rate and what that looks like,” Bailey said.
“Cleary New Zealand and Ireland play before us as well. I don’t think we’ll leave selection up until that late but we’ll work through that.
“I don’t think the time frame will be any different to any other game. we’ll probably get together post training tomorrow (Thursday) and work through that.”
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Australian has to defeat Afghanistan in their last group game to remain a chance of advancing to the semi-finals and hope other results go their way, with net run rate set to decide who moves through.
Bailey said first and foremost it was essential Australia put 11 fit and healthy players on the field against a tough opponent.
“Again, it’s that combined with the situation that we find ourselves in terms of what we might need to do in the game,” he said.
“At the fundamental level is Afghanistan is a very strong side and you need 11 fit and firing players to beat them.”
