Matthew Short Ruled Out of ICC Champions Trophy 2025
3 min read
The current world champions, Australia, are facing a major setback. Their in-form all-around player Matthew Short has suffered a quadriceps injury, so he will not be playing the ICC Champions Trophy Semifinal match against India. This high-intensity match will take place on March 4 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
What Happened?
During Australia’s last Group B match against Afghanistan last week, he sustained the injury while fielding. He played a crucial role for Australia in their opening match against England, where he made 63 runs for the team when they needed it the most. Even against Afghanistan, he made 20 runs quickly on just 15 balls just before he started struggling with his movement.
The last deciding group B match against Afghanistan was washed away by rain. Due to this, Australia managed to go to the semifinals with just one win (against England) in the group stage.
Who’s Replacing Him?
After the approval from the ICC technical committee, the name of Cooper Connolly has surfaced as the replacement for Matthew Short. Connolly Cooper has already played three ODIs for Australia at the very young age of just 21 years. He is a left-handed batter and a left-arm spinner who was initially selected by the Australian squad as a traveling reserve for the tournament.
An ICC statement confirmed that the Event Technical Committee of the ICC Men’s Champions Trophy 2025 has approved Cooper Connolly as a replacement for Matthew Short in the Australia squad.
Cooper Connolly started playing for Australia internationally last year and till now has played a total of 6 international matches. Finally, he got a golden opportunity to play in a high-pressure knockout game.
Can Australia Overcome This Setback?
Earlier, Steve Smith hinted at Short’s unavailability in a statement. He told the media at the post-match conference that Short is not moving very well and that it will probably be too quick to recover him between the games.
As Short is out now, Australia has to reshuffle their playing XI. The training for the semifinal match will be started for the team at the ICC Academy on Monday evening, and later, a final practice session will take place under the lights at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. On the other hand, during this time, team India has opted to skip training and will go ahead into the semifinal with the fresh energy they have got after defeating New Zealand with a dominant win.
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Australia’s Squad for the Semifinal
Steve Smith (c), Josh Inglis, Cooper Connolly, Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Alex Carey, Travis Head, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, and Adam Zampa.
From India’s perspective, an in-form Virat Kohli and Shubhman Gill will be a major advantage over a key missing player in Australia’s squad. We will have to stick to the television to get to know whether Australia can overcome this challenge or the Indian team will capitalize on this loose end.
