Khawaja has performed ok for Australia in a middle order where ok feels outstanding, all 4 middle order batsmen are about 10 runs below their average this world cup
Stoinis has at times been a very good 5th bowling option but has had nothing to celebrate with the bat, failing to be dynamic at the back end of the innings or perform a lower order recovery.
Handscomb is a much more dynamic batsman than Khawaja being one of the best 2 hitters in the middle overs I've seen. He also averages a fair bit less so he could be a net negative if he doesn't continue his form from this year
Mitch marsh looks a substantial improvement over stoinis with a better average and strike rate in odis and list a as well as having a substantially better bowling record. I wish we had him all tournament we might have gone undefeated
The other option to replace khawaja is wade who has been bradman like against some weak bowling attacks. The English attack isn't that much better to be honest and if its on a road he could be an attractive option. But if he does well against England they may be tempted to play him against india at lords which I think would be a mistake. Having said that he has done well at domestic level for quite a while. So perhaps his purple patch of form will translate into an odi world cup win

What are your thoughts? Could these two injuries be a blessing in disguise or have the screwed us over at the last hurdle

All four middle order batters being below their average  is surprising?

Some of the other teams at the World Cup must have had lower averages somewhere in the batting order  too. 

Last night on the cricket panel on Fox only Andrew Symonds could see that Matt Wade had stronger claims than Peter Handscomb for selection in the semi-final team. 

Symonds said that Handscomb had had plenty of opportunities at national team level with limited success and Wade had done everything asked by the selectors in scoring runs in all formats. 

Looks like stoinis is in and Handscomb is in the 11

So probably just a khawaja - Handscomb swap

It probably weakens our side a bit because khawaja had the highest average in our middle order at 35. All four batsmen struggling a tad

Personally I know there are questions on Khawaja, but I also have questions on Smith. Looking at these two against the big 5 in India, New Zealand, England Pakistan and South Africa., Smith has been worse than Khawaja.

India Smith 68  Khawaja 42
New Zealand  Smith 5  Khawaja 88
England  Smith 38   Khawaja 23
Pakistan  Smith 10  Khawaja 18
South Africa  Smith 7  Khawaja 18

Against these 5        Smith 128 av 25.6   Khawaja 189 av 37.8 (Khawaja's performance for a ODI average is good. Smith's is not)

Khawaja is not the problem, Smith is, but appears to be flying under the radar. The last time Smith played any cricket was against South Africa where Rabada and Co exposed his flawed technique of walking across the stumps and the extra pace saw him undone scoring 56, 38, 25, 11, 5 and 7 (average 23) I do believe that other sides see this and are aiming a bit more at the stumps and against these top 5 he was out LBW twice. The lay-off has not helped Smith and I think his days of being a flamboyant batsman could possibly be over. And if they are with the Ashes coming up, it is a bit of a worry.

Wade needs to come in possibly for Stoinis or Maxwell. But that is the problem when you only select 4 specialist batsmen in the side, 3 go early like against South Africa, only all-rounders to come, Thank God for Carey. 

Good to see you back, Mike.

Fair comments.

Also, many experts think that if Smith loses only a fraction of his hand eye, his unorthodox technique will be exposed.

yeah smith has been slightly weaker than khawaja

khawaja will be tough to replace

if we had mitch marsh we could get away with one all rounder (maybe) but I'd still play two