Australia captain Aaron Finch gave himself a 70% chance of playing against Afghanistan on Friday night, but was adamant he would not compromise the team in any way if he is not fully fit even though it could mean he has played his last international if they do not qualify for the semi-finals.
Both Finch and Tim David are carrying identical hamstring injuries that came from Australia's win over Ireland. Australia must win their clash with Afghanistan in Adelaide on Friday night and gain a huge net run rate boost to have any chance of playing in the semi-finals, while not knowing what will happen in the England-Sri Lanka clash on Saturday that could decide their fate.
The signs did not look overly promising for Finch based on Australia's training session where he did some running but did not bat. He was seen in conversation with Matthew Wade who would captain in his absence.
"I'm maybe 70-30," Finch said prior to training on Thursday. "But I'll test it out properly this afternoon to make sure that I'm not hindering the side at all leading into the game. That's the worst possible scenario, that you leave the guys short out there with one player fewer."
Finch, having already retired from ODI cricket and hinted at this tournament being his last in T20I cricket, was adamant that sentiment would play no part in his decision-making.
"It won't make it harder one bit," Finch said. "If I feel like it 1% would be compromising the side's performance I won't play.
"If I don't feel confident in my hamstring, then I won't play and that might be in the first effort that I do today, it might be in the last one. If I feel any pain or anything like that I won't play."
Finch confirmed that David would face the same fitness test on his hamstring at training and he batted in the nets.
"I think the scan results showed a very similar thing," Finch said. "He's in exactly the same boat, he'll get worked out today.
"We'll know more during training, the likelihood of both of us playing, one of us playing, neither of us, whatever that looks like, it's exactly the same. You don't want to compromise the team's performance by having a guy go down who comes in with a niggle. That will be one of the things we go through as well and make sure it's all ticked off this afternoon."
Finch is part of Australia's selection group that picks the final XI alongside coach Andrew McDonald and chair of selectors George Bailey, with the third selector Tony Dodemaide kept involved despite not being in Adelaide.
Finch said there were a number of different combinations Australia could go with depending on whether he and David were fit and would not speculate on the options. He also added Australia had not discussed the net run rate equation.
"Not as a team we haven't," Finch said. "I've talked a little bit with the coach. We went through it this morning briefly. Like I said last game, you still have to earn the right to push for a net run rate, because the last thing that you want to happen is you push too hard, you compromise the two points, and then potentially something happens in the Sri Lanka-England game and you leave yourselves vulnerable. But there are some scenarios that we need to keep an eye on throughout the game that if we get in a good position we can maximise that."