T20 World Cup: Australia captain Aaron Finch still in doubt for Ireland clash, Stoinis fit to play

Aaron Finch and Tim David’s status to play for the defending champions in the vital final T20 World Cup Super 12s match against Afghanistan is scheduled to be decided by Australia on Thursday evening. The two ran together for about 20 minutes on Wednesday at Karen Rolton Oval, and while neither seemed too inconvenienced, they didn’t push themselves much faster than the jogging pace. They are both recovering from hamstring injuries sustained in Australia’s victory over Ireland at the Gabba on Monday; all-rounder Marcus Stoinis had to leave the field briefly late in that match due to a similar problem, which national selection panel chair George Bailey described as precautionary. According to Bailey, Stoinis, who last week played Sri Lanka and set a new record for the fastest 50 by an Australian in men’s T20I cricket (off 17 balls), was undoubtedly good to go. However, a final decision on skipper Finch and power-hitter David would be made following training on Thursday. “They’re working through what they normally would after coming off a flight anyway,” Bailey said during today’s training session, in which only half a dozen members of Australia’s 15-man squad took part after yesterday’s flight from Brisbane. “It’s nice to have the extra day for them to be able to recover and get a bit of work in, and we’ll keep assessing them over the next 48 hours. The fact they’re out there moving, always after a travel day it’s going to be pretty light anyway, but to see them out and moving and getting up to moderate speed is pretty good,” said Bailey as quoted by cricket.com.au. “I don’t think the time frame (on making a call on their availability) will be different to any other game. We’ll probably get together tomorrow post-training and work through that,” added the former player. After Monday’s victory, Finch had seemed the most unlikely to be deemed fit, given the evident discomfort he displayed while fielding and his post-game statement that, although stating he has a history of hamstring issues, calling the problem a twinge. A win won’t be enough for the host nation to advance if New Zealand defeats Ireland (on Friday) and England defeats Sri Lanka since their net run rate is much lower than Group One rivals New Zealand and England, and all three teams are tied on points (Saturday). However, Bailey said that while conceding run-rate formulae will be used on Friday to attempt and raise Australia’s net run rate above nearest rival England, the team’s top objective must be defeating Afghanistan before turning their attention to other matters.