Australia Test captain Pat Cummins gave an update about star player Cameron Green's injury ahead of the first Test against India starting on February 9. Green was ruled out of the Sydney Test match after he was seen bleeding while he suffered a thumb injury that needed surgery.
The 23-year-old batting all-rounder's finger injury raised concerns about his availability in the upcoming Test series. However, Cummins confirmed to Fox Sports that Green won't be able to bowl in the first Test match at Nagpur on Thursday.
“I know he won’t be bowling (in the first Test). The next week’s obviously really important," the Australian skipper said. "He hasn’t been able to do a lot yet. I think the nature of that particular injury is once it comes good, it comes good really quickly," he added.
Cummins also put light on the possibility of Green's inclusion in the playing XI for batting. Cummins said that his fellow player was going to attempt to bat in the nets on Thursday, but the result of that test is unclear.
“I haven’t seen how that’s gone, but we’ll see how the next week goes, the next few days in particular, and map out a plan. Still kind of hopeful, but see how he goes.” Cummins further added.
Green made his debut for his team during the 2020-21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy and has played a crucial role for the team since then. Green was the second-expensive buy in the IPL auction 2023 and was sold to Mumbai Indians for Rs 17.50 crore.
Without Green bowling in the first Test, there is no possibility of bowling three specialist spinners, which means just one fast bowler would be available in the playing line-up.
Cummins said that “nothing’s off the table” completely. “I doubt that’s kind of an option for the first Test, but we’ll wait and see with the conditions,” Cummins said. “Again, you look at our team, players like Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland, they’re top-class bowlers, so even though it might be spinning conditions, it’s hard to bet against those guys not doing a fantastic job.”
Australia will play a four-match Test series against India which kick starts on 9 February at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. The series will have bearings on the World Test Championship (WTC) where both India and Australia are in pole positions to make the final in June while South Africa and Sri Lanka are also in contention with an outside chance if India fail to make the most of the opportunity.
