In preparation for the Twenty20 World Cup, Australia faced an unusual challenge as they were only able to field nine squad members instead of the required 11 against Namibia. The shortage of players forced chief selector George Bailey and fielding coach Andre Borovec to take the field, but despite this setback, Australia emerged victorious at Trinidad’s Queen’s Park Oval.
Namibia was restricted to 119-9 in their innings, while Australia, led by opener David Warner’s impressive performance of 54 not out, scored 123-3 in just 10 overs to win by a comfortable margin of seven wickets. Despite being missing six World Cup squad members who had been given time off after their Indian Premier League duties, Bailey and Borovec were joined on the field by other coaches when captain Mitch Marsh and Josh Hazlewood had to spend time off.
Hazlewood commented that it was good for the players to get some match practice after a long break, despite not having a full team available for the warmup match. Two other T20 tournament warmup matches in England and Dallas, Texas were also washed out earlier in the day. With only one warmup match under their belts before the T20 World Cup begins on Saturday and is held in the United States and the Caribbean.
