Abbott makes history as first subbed out of Shield with injury

Sean Abbott has become the first player substituted out of a Sheffield Shield match under trial rules allowing injury replacements after hurting his hand on day one of New South Wales' contest with Victoria in Melbourne.

Abbott split the webbing on his right bowling hand after stopping a firmly struck Peter Handscomb drive during Wednesday's second session. He was unable to complete his over and immediately walked off the field.

After medicos made the judgement that the injury would have severely hampered him for the remainder of the match, NSW successfully applied for Abbott to be replaced in the XI by reserve paceman Charlie Stobo.

As part of Cricket Australia's trial rules introduced this summer to the Shield, Victoria may now also make their own tactical substitution by stumps on day two.

That sub must be a like-for-like for Abbott – so they would have to replace a bowler with another bowler.

"I didn't think it would as bad (an injury as it was)," Handscomb said after play of Abbott, who required stitches to heal the wound.

"He seemed quite calm walking off. You never wish anything (bad) upon another player. It's a shame for him and hopefully it's a quick healing process."

The trial, in place for the first five Shield games of the season, comes as the ICC considers whether similar rules could one day be introduced at Test level.

It's a debate had most recently when Chris Woakes got injured in an England-India match earlier this year.

The injury to Abbott, who is in Australia's T20I squad to play India later this month, is a further headache for national selectors who already have CA-contracted quicks Pat Cummins, Lance Morris and Jhye Richardson all managing injuries of varying severity.

Brendan Doggett, Spencer Johnson and Callum Vidler are others on their radar who are not on the park to begin the domestic season.

Abbott must now serve a mandatory 12-day standdown period from cricket. That, conveniently, ends on October 29, the date of the series-opening Australia-India BKT Tires T20I in Canberra. He would not have been able to play in NSW's next Shield match, beginning a day earlier against Queensland at the Gabba.

There was early optimism from the NSW camp that Abbott would recover in time for that first T20I against India at Manuka Oval.

The 33-year-old stands some chance of making his Test debut this summer if Australia suffer injuries to their seamers during the Ashes. The right-armer bowled with good pace with the new ball against the Vics in his first four-dayer of the season and pocketed the wicket of opener Harry Dixon.

Stobo meanwhile was thrust into the action on Wednesday in unusual fashion.

The right-armer, an unfortunate omission for this match after taking four wickets in the Blues' season opener in Perth, was bowling to fellow reserve Lachlan Shaw in the Junction Oval nets at lunch shortly before Abbott got injured.

Hatcher joked after play that his spell in the nets meant NSW had brought in some "not so fresh legs".

But Stobo underlined the value of a replacement player when he got the prized scalp of Peter Handscomb for 85, caught at slip.

"He's the ultimate professional," Hatcher said of Stobo, who took 1-19 from his six overs. "He's one of the best preparers and minds in the game that I've played with.

"We knew when he came in that he'd do the job and he certainly did that."

Sheffield Shield 2025-26 standings

Team	Matches played M	Wins W	Losses L	Drawn D	No results N/R	Deductions Ded.	Batting Bonus Bat	Bowling Bonus Bowl	Total points PTS
1 Victoria Men VIC	5	4	1	0	0	0	5.32	4.3	33.62
2 Queensland Bulls QLD	5	2	1	2	0	0	8.18	3.8	25.98
3 Tasmanian Tigers Men TAS	5	2	2	1	0	2	3.34	4	18.34
4 South Australia Men SA	5	1	2	2	0	0	2.43	4.6	15.03
5 NSW Men NSW	5	1	3	1	0	0	3.32	4	14.32
6 Western Australia Men WA	5	1	2	2	0	0	1.61	4.5	14.11

Legend

M: Matches played

W: Wins

L: Losses

D: Drawn

N/R: No results

Ded.: Deductions

Bat: Batting Bonus

Bowl: Bowling Bonus

PTS: Total points