World Cup 2019: Matthew Wade, Mitchell Marsh drafted into the Australian squad as cover for Usman Khawaja, Marcus Stoinis
What's the story?
Australia A side's Matthew Wade and Mitchell Marsh have been called up to the senior squad as cover for the injured duo of Marcus Stoinis and top order batsman Usman Khawaja, who sustained injuries in Australia's 10-run loss to South Africa at Old Trafford.
Khawaja and Stoinis suffered hamstring and side strain injuries respectively, and although a final call is yet to be made by Cricket Australia, Wade and Marsh have been roped in as backup from Brighton, where Australia A were set to start their tour with an unofficial Test match against Sussex on 7 July, Sunday.
In case you didn't know...
In their narrow defeat at the hands of South Africa, Australia lost two of their key players due to injury. While Khawaja was declared retired hurt after receiving some treatment in the middle, Stoinis continued to bat despite a side strain.
After the fall of the sixth wicket, Khawaja came in but couldn't make much of a difference, as Rabada dismissed him and powered South Africa to a 10-run victory.
The heart of the matter
Owing to the defeat, the national side will travel to Birmingham from Manchester to lock horns with hosts England on Thursday. Meanwhile, India, who topped the table after their comprehensive victory against Sri Lanka, are due to take on New Zealand at Old Trafford.
Although both players are set to undergo scans later today, it is most likely that Khawaja will be ruled out for the rest of the tournament. Stoinis though might be in a race against time to recover.
From the last 12 months or so, Wade has been in blistering form for both Australia A and in the Big Bash. Recently, he smoked a 45-ball century against Derbyshire to register the fastest List A century by an Australian. Safe to say, there are very few people in world cricket hitting the ball better than him at the moment.
In the same tour where Wade had struck a whopping 355 runs in four outings, Marsh has amassed four unbeaten scores of 40, 29, 53 and 4. The all-rounder was called up earlier as cover for Stoinis as well but is yet to feature.
Earlier, Peter Handscomb was slotted into the team for the injured Shaun Marsh.
What's next?
Australia were cruising and were destined to finish on top of the ladder, but three injuries and a defeat against South Africa have proved to be a meaty blow ahead of their encounter against England on 11 July.
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