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The T20 World Cup 2021 Champions Australian cricket team have found themselves in a situation where they can’t even field a proper Playing XI for their T20 World Cup 2024 Warm-up matches starting from 29th May and could even be forced to field their coaches for the matches.

Australia Might Be Forced to Field Coaches With Half A Dozen Players Unavailable in T20 World Cup warm-ups

The Australian cricket team will begin its T20 World Cup 2024 campaign on the 6th of June according to Indian timing. But before even their competition proper begins, the Aussies have been left undermanned for their warm-up matches starting from 29th May against Namibia.

According to the latest update from cricket.com.au, Australia is set to give proper rest to its trio – Pat Cummins, Travis Head and Mitchell Starc, who were part of the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Final where Starc’s team KKR beat Cummins and Head’s Sunrisers Hyderabad.

It is believed that the trio won’t be linking up with the Australian team in the Caribbean islands already before the end of the week in Barbados. Meanwhile, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green, the duo who featured in the Eliminator for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and lost to Rajasthan on 24th May, are yet to join the team and reportedly will also join the team by the end of the week.

More than that, Australia’s captain Mitchell Marsh is also going to miss the first warm-up match vs Namibia at least who is currently recovering from an injury that ruled him out of the IPL 2024 mid-season. Marcus Stoinis, who turned out for Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the IPL, will also only be available afterwards the Namibia match.

Travelling reserve players Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short will link up with the team only on June 5 and even if they were available for selection during the warm-up matches, they wouldn’t have been allowed as they are not part of the main team.

What Does the ICC Rules Say?

With close to half a dozen players set to be unavailable for the first warm-up match vs Namibia, the Australian team could be forced to field their coaches. According to ICC rules, in non-competitive matches, any player can take the field as long as they are part of the main squad and are of their respective nationality. In that case, any Australian nationals in Australia’s coaching staff would be able to play for Australia in the warm-up matches.

For instance, Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald, assistant coach Andre Borovec, batting coach Michael Di Venuto and bowling coach Clint McKay can all feature in the match for Australia.

The coaches can be used as fielders to complete their playing XI on the ground, whereas they can send one batter multiple times to bat in non-competitive practice matches.

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