The premier Australian batsman, Steve Smith has suffered an injury scare ahead of the Border-Gavaskar series opener after he missed a habitual net at the team’s main training session ahead of the Day-Night Test against India in Adelaide. As per the report of the Australian team spokesman, Smith had suffered a strain in his back when bending down to pick up a ball. Steve Smith was present in the early warm-ups but he headed back to the dressing room only after 10 minutes into the session.
It’ll be a huge blow for Australia as Smith’s injury would be a major concern for them as they have already been missing the teh services of some crucial cogs in the batting line-up. Notably, Australia is already without the services of David Warner, Will Pucovski, and Cameron Green (concussion) for the Day-night Test match against India.
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Cricket Australia officials have downplayed teh injury concerns of Steve Smith and said that he is expected to hit the nets on Wednesday. However, his injury is deeply worrying given the already injury-ravaged nature of the Australian squad.
Australia's 'disjointed' preparation took another turn for the unexpected when Steve Smith missed the major batting session today prior to #AUSvIND Test series opener https://t.co/cGyxlRrK0U
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 15, 2020
Australia is yet to finalize their opening pair as both David Warner and Pucovski will be expected to fit only after the first Test. Marcus Harris is likely to get the nod alongside Joe Burns but the two batsmen were struggling to put the bat on the ball against the Indian pace attack in the pink-ball warm-up match.
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Australia Test squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Will Pucovski, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner.