Australia is preparing for the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 in Dubai when the two-match Test series against Sri Lanka begins later in January. Steven Smith, the star batter and interim captain, seems dubious about playing in the series with less than two weeks to go. Smith has been given the all-clear to play in the series, which is good news for the Australian squad.
On Monday, January 20, Cricket Australia (CA) issued a statement confirming the development in the case. The board also disclosed that the star batter underwent a medical evaluation by a specialist surgeon to have the right elbow injury he sustained in a BBL match against the Sydney Thunder scanned.
Steven Smith had a specialised medical evaluation today after suffering a right elbow injury in the Big Bash League.
He is now free to go to Dubai and rejoin the Test team. In order to start preparing for the first Test match against Sri Lanka, Smith is anticipated to resume batting later this week, according to Cricket Australia (CA).
“Smith is expected to return to batting later in the week to begin his preparation for the first Test against Sri Lanka,” said the statement.
Regarding Smith’s record in red-ball cricket, he has participated in 114 matches and amassed 9999 runs at a 55.86 average. After the great Australians Steve Waugh, Alan Border, and Ricky Ponting, he is Australia’s fourth-highest run scorer. With 314 runs at an average of 34.88 and two hundreds during the series, he was also the second-highest run scorer in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024–25.
Smith gets the chance to surpass 10,000 runs in the format while serving as the team’s captain, as Pat Cummins has chosen to take a break from the Sri Lanka series due to workload concerns.
Awaiting Kuhnemann’s update
Matthew Kuhnemann, a left-arm orthodox spinner, will be heading to the island nation with the team, but he is still unsure if he will play in the red-ball matches. Notably, Kuhnemann suffered a blow to his right thumb, which prevents him from bowling, raising questions about whether he will play in the Sri Lanka Tests.
Australia squad for two Tests vs Sri Lanka, 2025: Steven Smith, Travis Head, Sam Konstas, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Sean Abbott, Cooper Connolly, Nathan McSweeney, Beau Webster, Scott Boland, Matthew Kuhnemann, Mitchell Starc, Todd Murphy, Nathan Lyon
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