Pat Cummins Backs Larger Squads For Long Tournaments Like World Cup

With just 13 members available out of the 15-man squad for their World Cup match against England, Australian captain Pat Cummins on Friday said teams should be allowed to travel with larger squads considering the tournament's duration. Looking to qualify for the semifinals, Australia will miss the services of star players Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh in Saturday's contest against their traditional rivals. Maxwell suffered a freak injury during a game of golf while Marsh has returned home for personal reasons, and no definite timeline is marked for his return to action. Maxwell, however, is likely to regain full fitness soon.

"Yeah, to be honest," Cummins said when asked if he is in favour of bringing in regulations allowing teams to pick larger squads for long tournaments like the World Cup.

Currently all teams can have just 15 member squads.

"I mean, it's a two-month tournament. You wouldn't want to be in a position where, say, somewhere like a team like New Zealand have had some injuries and luckily, they've been able to hold someone like Kane in the squad but if suddenly you had to rule him out - that wouldn't be good for a cricket or a World Cup.

"It's not like you can poach players from other countries, so I always kind of think as many players as you need, you should be able to pick from," Cummins added.

New Zealand are the worst affected by injuries and the growing list now has five names in it, with the latest beng Matt Henry's exit from the tournament.

Speaking about the key players missing from his team, Cummins said at the pre-match presser, "Maxi's hopeful for the clash against Afghanistan, so he'll just miss this one. But he's trained well yesterday and still taking it day by day, but hoping he'll just