Injured Australian opener Short likely to miss Champions Trophy semifinal

Lahore, Mar 1 (PTI) Australian opener Matthew Short will likely miss the Champions Trophy semifinal against either India or New Zealand after the in-form batter suffered a quad injury in the washed out match against Afghanistan here.

Short had scored a 15-ball 20 on Friday but had looked in visible pain before he was dismissed by Azmatullah Omarzai as Australia advanced to the semifinals with four points.

The 29-year-old white-ball player had scored 63 as Steve Smith’s Australia had chased down England’s mammoth 351 in their opening match of the Champions Trophy.

Smith said he didn’t think the star opener would be fit to play in next week’s semifinal.

“I think he’ll be struggling. I think we saw tonight he wasn’t moving very well. I think it’s probably going to be too quick between games for him to recover,” Smith was quoted as saying on Prime Video by Australian Associated Press (AAP).

Australia could include in big-hitter Jake Fraser-McGurk as a like-for-like replacement in the playing XI, though he suffered two failures in the recent one-day series in Sri Lanka.

All-rounder Aaron Hardie too could be an option, while the team also has Cooper Connolly as a travelling reserve in case Short is completely ruled out from the tournament.

“We’ve got a few guys there to come in to fill a job,” added Smith.

Australia will either play the semfinal against India in Dubai on Tuesday or against New Zealand on Wednesday in Lahore, as their opponents will only be known after Sunday’s group clash between Rohit Sharma’s side and the Black Caps in Dubai.

Australia are currently leading Group B with four points but that can change if South Africa, who are on three points, defeat England in Saturday’s final group tie in Karachi.

There is also an extremely remote possibility of Afghanistan finishing second behind Australia in the group and qualifying, but only if Jos Buttler’s England crush South Africa, which statistically, looks highly unlikely.