In a bizarre occurrence, Australia lined up with only nine players and had their coaches and selector take the field as they beat Namibia in the first T20 World Cup warm up match.
Since Pat Cummins, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green have been given extra time off to recover from their engagement in the Indian Premier League, Australia only had nine players available to take the field on Wednesday.
After captain Mitch Marsh won the toss and elected to field, two members of the Australian support staff – selection chief George Bailey, a former Australia captain who is now 41, and fielding coach Andre Borovec, a 46-year-old former wicketkeeper, initially took the field to make up the numbers.
Later, Australian batting coach Brad Hodge and head coach Andrew McDonald came on fielding duties when Marsh and Josh Hazlewood spent time off the field.
However, the handicap barely posed any hindrance to Australia, the world No. 2 T20 team, as they comfortably dispatched Namibia.
Batting first Namibia were restricted to 119/9 in 20 overs and Australia chased down the target with ease in 10 overs and 7 wickets in hand.
Australia have been drawn in Group B for this year’s World T20 along with two-time champions England, Namibia, Scotland and Oman.
Sherjeel Malik is the editor at FanHaat with a writing experience in multiple sports. He oversees the editorial and content coverage at FanHaat and writes often around combat sports, football and other marquee sports. A professional highlight of his career was when WWE’s Paul Heyman shared one of his articles on his social media.
Apart from writing, editing and watching sports, he likes to indulge in reading fiction, watching war documentaries and is a fan of Liverpool FC
