Australian captain Aaron Finch admitted that the hosts are taking a risk by not calling up an extra wicketkeeper for the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup 2022 after Josh Inglis was ruled out of the tournament.
Inglis suffered a freak hand injury while playing golf earlier this week, and was eventually replaced in the Australian squad by the talented all-rounder Cameron Green, with the hosts kicking off their title defense against New Zealand on October 22 at SCG.
Following their bold decision to replace injured Inglis with Green, Australia will have no specialist replacement for first-choice keeper Matthew Wade for the tournament, and Finch revealed that David Warner would most likely step up if needed.
As reported by AFP, Aaron Finch told reporters: “We’re taking the risk and not going with the extra keeper, which obviously has a degree of risk to it. We feel as though Cam gives us a little bit better balance to the squad. That’s definitely a risk, there’s no doubt about that.”
Finch revealed that he was with Inglis when he badly hurt his hand and he really felt bad for the 27-year-old keeper.
The skipper added, “That was a freak accident. I was playing in Josh’s group and I feel so bad for him. We didn’t realize the club broke, we just thought he hit it poorly, and he looked down and there was blood everywhere. It was pretty distressing there for a little bit.”
Rain is highly likely to play spoilsport in Australia vs New Zealand match on Saturday, and Finch said that the hosts are ready for all scenarios.
He signed off by saying, “You do put so much time and effort into planning for all scenarios and you have to be flexible. The thing about rain is how much it affects the game — if it’s two overs it doesn’t make much of a difference. If it’s a five-over game that makes a huge amount of difference.”
(With AFP Inputs)
