Green light: Australia confirm Inglis' Cup replacement

It might not have happened in the manner anyone envisaged but Cameron Green is in Australia's World Cup squad.

The reigning T20 champions will gamble on going into the tournament without a back-up keeper after naming Green, an allrounder who has huge potential in the white-ball cricket but remains inexperienced in the shortest format, as an injury replacement for Josh Inglis.

Inglis was sporting a bandaged right hand at Australia's training session at the SCG on Thursday after a desperately unlucky golf mishap left him requiring more than half-a-dozen stitches.

The handle of the wicketkeeper's six-iron club snapped on impact while playing at New South Wales Golf Club on Wednesday morning and while he was not set to play in Saturday's tournament opener against New Zealand, his versatility as a reserve meant his absence left the Aussies with a tricky call.

In picking Green, who has impressed as an opener in recent matches while his 140kph seamers coming from his enormous 198cm frame give him an extra point of difference, Australia have essentially rolled the dice on first-choice keeper Matthew Wade not suffering a game-day injury.

If that were to happen, Australia would have to give the gloves to one of the 15 players already in the squad given ICC rules do not permit players from outside the squad to be replaced on the day of a game.

David Warner briefly put the wicketkeeping gloves on in Sydney on Thursday, while captain Aaron Finch has kept in the KFC BBL but has previously outlined safety concerns about inexperienced keepers filling in.

"It's a very dangerous position and is a specialist position at the end of the day," Finch said in 2017.

Coach Andrew McDonald even mentioned Mitchell Starc's name among potential fill-in keepers – the pace ace stood behind the stumps as a junior – but the idea of the left-arm opening quick taking the gloves between bowling seems far-fetched.

McDonald did point out that Australia have gone into World Cups before without a back-up keeper before; while Inglis was there as Wade's deputy last year in a COVID bubble in the UAE, there was no reserve gloveman for the 2019 ODI World Cup (Alex Carey was the only specialist), 2016 World T20 (Peter Nevill) or the 2015 ODI event (Brad Haddin).

Australia have the extra advantage of playing this tournament at home, meaning if Wade were to get hurt in the lead-in to the match, they could call up either Josh Philippe, Ben McDermott or Alex Carey to the squad.

"If you look back over World Cup selections there's been plenty of times where Australia have gone in only one frontline keeper in the squad," said McDonald.

"That's just to give greater flexibility to batting and bowling structures within the team.

"It's a conversation about how we want to give ourselves the most amount of options as opposed to covering the small risk that is there."

Australia have gotten game-time into Green in recent weeks to ensure he would be available as cover for fellow seam-bowling allrounders Marcus Stoinis and Mitch Marsh, who have both only recently recovered from injuries.

Green had no international T20 experience going into Australia's series in India last month but blasted two half-centuries at strike-rates around 200 to highlight his supreme potential in the shortest format.

Whether he could bat further down the order is another question, but his inclusion suggests Australia may be willing to try him if they were to suffer an injury to a frontliner.

"Anyone that can bat anywhere in the order and can give you a few handy overs can give you a different look if something were to go wrong with your top seven batters," McDonald told SEN earlier on Thursday.

Men's T20 World Cup 2022

Australia squad: Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia's T20 World Cup 2022 fixtures

Oct 22: v New Zealand, SCG, 6pm AEDT

Oct 25: v Sri Lanka, Optus Stadium, 10pm AEDT

Oct 28: v England, MCG, 7pm AEDT

Oct 31: v 2B, Gabba, 7pm AEDT

Nov 4: v Afghanistan, Adelaide Oval, 7pm AEDT

Click here for a full 2022 T20 World Cup fixture