Big setback for Australia ahead of the semi final clash against England
Ahead of Australia's semi-final match against England in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, skipper Aaron Finch said injured top-order batsman Usman Khawaja is "not looking great" as of now.
Khawaja had sustained an injury during the match against South Africa on Saturday. He had left the field after facing five balls in his innings due to a hamstring issue. He eventually came in to bat later as the team were chasing a massive target of 326. Khawaja managed to score 18 runs.
When asked about Khawaja's replacement, Finch stated that the team has not had the time to talk about it yet.
"Khawaja is not looking great, in all honesty. He has done a couple of hammies before and he said it feels similar to that. So, in terms of replacements, we have not had time to sit down and talk about that yet," ICC quoted Finch as saying.
"He did not aggravate it anymore when he got back out there. He wanted to go out. Once we got as close as we did, having a batter was crucial. It did not work, but he has put the team first, which is a brilliant quality to have," Finch added.
Along with Khawaja, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis also suffered an injury. Stoinis felt discomfort in fielding as well as in batting and was provided with treatment in between his innings.
The 29-year-old played a knock of 22 runs before getting run-out by Kagiso Rabada.
On Stoinis' injury, Finch said that the team will wait for the scans and will provide an update about his injury.
Stoinis had recently recovered from the injury that he had sustained during the match against India on June 9. He returned to the field in Australia's clash against Bangladesh.
"Marcus is a bit sore in his side. We will have to wait for scans tomorrow to know the finer details of it. Obviously, it is tough to talk about replacements when you have not got the full story and the full scan, so we'll get that tomorrow," Finch said.
Australia will face England in the semi-final match at Edgbaston on July 11.
-ANI
