Smith could miss World Cup due to elbow surgery
NEW DELHI: Former Australia captain Steve Smith could miss the ICC World Cup in England this summer in order to recover from a major elbow surgery, claims a news report.
According to Espncricinfo, Smith’s surgery could see the Australia think-tank keep him out of the World Cup and instead allow him time to gather energy and prepare for the Ashes series, the first Test of which starts on August 1.
KEY MEN
While Australia captain Tim Paine had recently said that Smith and David Warner, both of whom are currently serving one-year suspensions for ball tampering, will have important roles to play in the upcoming Ashes, the timeline for the duo’s return to international cricket is not yet clear.
“Those two (Smith and Warner) have got plenty of runs in the bank. I see us going to the Ashes and them having a huge part in us winning the series,” Paine told reporters after clinching the Test series against Sri Lanka on Monday.
Both Warner and Smith will have completed their suspension on March 29.
At that point, Australia will be touring UAE for a bilateral series against Pakistan. Warner, incidentally, recovering from an elbow surgery himself, is expected to regain fitness by that time, with two of the five matches scheduled after March 29.
Australia head coach Justin Langer had recently suggested that Smith and Warner would both need to get some domestic action before returning to the international fold.
“We’ve got to keep working on how they are with their elbows, first. They’re going to need to get some cricket before coming back into the squad,” Langer was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
ANXIOUS MOMENTS
It was enough to unnerve them and even send centurion, the Saurashtra wicketkeeper-batsman Snell Patel to hospital for an MRI. Patel was hit on the helmet when he was on 94. Soon after, at 102, the shaken Patel was drawn into edging Umesh’s delivery to the keeper. The MRI report came out fine although he didn’t come out to keep wickets.
Before Patel’s dismissal, Umesh had hit the other overnight batsman Prerak Mankad in the arm. Soon after, he too fell leg-before to left-arm spinner Aditya Sarwate.
“There was not much in the wicket. The spinners didn’t get much purchase in the first half. Umesh had pace and was short and aggressive,” said off-spinner Akshay Wakhare who took four wickets. Sarwate finished
with a fifer.
At 184/7, Vidarbha were set for a big lead. But just like their tail on the second morning, the opposition’s wagged as well. The eighth wicket added 38 and the ninth 22. The hosts, who were letting the game drift away, still had a decent lead in
sight (247/9) but then Sakariya (28 off 82), who has played a couple of good innings on spinfriendly tracks in U-23 games this season, hung around for 117 minutes — almost a session — with Unadkat (46 off 101 balls).
That Vidarbha took the new ball immediately after the 80th over helped in getting quick runs.
The first six overs with the second new ball fetched 30 runs and at the end of the extended first session, the visitors were 284/9. Post-lunch, Vidarbha kept it tight and tried to keep a line outside the off to Unadkat.
There were some nervy moments as tight bowling coupled with cautious batting made run-making difficult. The strategy to keep it outside off worked as Unadkat swept one off Wakhare straight to short square leg.
The first session on the fourth day will be important as two of Vidarbha’s professionals with a combined experience of 14 Ranji finals — Wasim Jaffer and G Satish — will hope to consolidate the lead and set a decent target to a team that has chased down steep totals in the fourth innings of quarter-finals and semi-finals.