Matthew Short’s meteoric rise has continued, with the Victorian joining the Punjab Kings ahead of this year’s Indian Premier League as an injury replacement for England superstar Jonny Bairstow.
Bairstow suffered a horrific broken leg while playing golf in September, ruling him out of England’s winter campaign and the T20 World Cup. The 33-year-old has resumed training but is not expected to return to full fitness until May – the ECB is confident he will be available for the highly-anticipated Ashes, which starts on June 22.
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On Saturday, the Punjab Kings confirmed Bairstow had been ruled out of the IPL, which gets underway next week, announcing Short as his replacement for the two-month tournament.
Short, currently playing the Sheffield Shield final in Perth, was named Player of the Big Bash League this summer after registering 458 runs at 35.23 while striking 144.47 for the Adelaide Strikers. He scored an unbeaten century during the Strikers’ record run chase against the Hobart Hurricanes in January, also snaring 11 wickets across the T20 competition.
The 27-year-old, who has never played franchise cricket outside Australia, will join Tasmanian seamer Nathan Ellis at the Punjab-based franchise.
“When I was younger, Greg Chappell once said, you look after everything on field and score runs and bowl well and all the contracts and stuff will take care of themselves, so I‘ve always stuck to that,” Short said earlier the season.
“I just enjoy playing cricket and I‘m just trying to take care of the things on field rather than thinking about anything off the field.”
Of the 14 Australians set to play in the IPL, Short is the only one yet to make their international debut.
Following his retirement earlier this month, former Australian captain Aaron Finch identified Short as one of the contenders to replace him in the national T20 side, while Victoria batting coach Ben Rohrer believes he is “definitely” ready for the challenges of international cricket.
“We’ve seen what he’s done in the last two Big Bash summers at the top of the order,” Rohrer told foxsports.com.au last month.
“He plays spin very well, plays high pace very well. He’s more than set up to be able to do that at the top of the order for Australia.
“Hopefully that comes for him in the near future, and there’s no doubt he’d be working hard to try and achieve that.”
The Punjab Kings will play their opening IPL fixture against the Kolkata Knight Riders on Saturday, with the first ball scheduled for 9pm AEDT.