New Delhi: Experienced all-rounder Glenn Maxwell is set to miss Australia’s upcoming clash against England in the ongoing World Cup contest as he suffered a “concussion after falling off the back of a golf cart”.
Australia will face England on November 4 at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad. But Maxwell will not be part of that clash. According to ICC, the Australian batter was riding on the back of a golf cart late on October 30 evening in Gujarat when he fell off. He suffered a concussion and significant bruising after the incident.
Based on Cricket Australia’s concussion regulations, the allrounder is ruled out of his team’s clash with England in Ahmedabad. At the same time, Australia haven’t replaced him in the squad, and remain hopeful that he will be available later in the tournament.
This is the second time that Maxwell has suffered an injury from an accident in less than 12 months. He previously broke his leg at a private party last November, an injury that put his place in the World Cup in doubt and he recently recovered from that setback.
Maxwell’s absence is bound to hurt the Baggy Greens, as the all-rounder has been in great form in the campaign. He has scored 196 runs at a strike-rate of 148.48 in the tournament. He struck a 106 from 44 balls against the Netherlands in Delhi and made the record for the fastest ton in the men’s Cricket World Cup hundred. He also claimed four wickets with his off-spin in the tournament.
Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa, Mitchell Starc.
England squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ben Stokes, Brydon Carse, David Willey, Mark Wood, Chris Woakes.
“He’s doing fine, he’ll start some light exercises today and we feel as though it will be a reasonably straightforward return to play protocol. Suppose the fortunate part was there was no other injury sustained which could have been a lot worse that it currently is. Think it rattled everyone to be fair once it came to the conclusion there was a concussion and he was going to miss a game. There was nothing untoward in the behaviour throughout the day, it was a clear cut accident and unfortunately it compromised what we are doing as a team” said Australian head coach Andrew McDonald said.
Australia will surely look to pile on England’s misery in the World Cup so far as Jos Buttler and co are performing way below their pay grade and expectations. Winning just one game in their six matches, England are coming into this contest following a 4-match loss in a row. The two rival sides will meet each other on Saturday (November 4) at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
David Warner was quoted as saying by Cricket.com.au: “It’d be nice to pile on England’s misery. But they’re the teams that are the most dangerous when there’s nothing to lose. They’ve got some very, very high-quality players, and we have to respect them. They bat at 11, and their bowling unit is very good.”
