Aussie coaches and teammates were surprised by Matthew Kuhnemann's swift recovery from a thumb injury
'I thought he was gone': Aussies stunned by Kuhnemann's recovery
Australia men's team coach Andrew McDonald concedes the national selection panel (of which he is a member) had not worked out who might replace Matthew Kuhnemann if the spinner's recent thumb injury had forced him out of the current Sri Lanka tour.
Kuhnemann starred in his first Test outing for almost two years, claiming nine wickets in Australia's record-setting win by an innings and 242 runs in the first game of the two-match series at Galle.
But the 28-year-old achieved the best match figures of his four Tests to date while also nursing a compound fracture of his right thumb courtesy of a fielding mishap while playing for Brisbane Heat in the BBL just over a fortnight ago.
After undergoing surgery in Brisbane where two metal 'nails' were inserted to stabilise the damaged joint, Kuhnemann joined Australia's Test squad in Sri Lanka and proved his fitness to the amazement of teammates and their coach.
"I thought he was gone," McDonald said in the aftermath of Australia's biggest Test win in Asia, and the fourth-largest in the men's team's history.
"But as it got closer to the Test match, he was pretty much a lock three days out.
"It was a real surprise for me, I don't know how it works really."
Australia's stand-in skipper Steve Smith was also confounded by Kuhnemann's capacity to withstand bowling and fielding – the left-hander wasn't required to bat – and suggested the surgery must have been undertaken by a magician rather than a surgeon.
The only time Kuhnemann showed discomfort across the 35.5 overs he sent down came late in Sri Lanka's second innings yesterday when a ball was hit hard back down the pitch in similar circumstances to the blow that caused the damage.
The bowler was instinctively skittish about trying to stop it.
But by that stage the game was all-but done and Kuhnemann had more than proved his worth with a five-wicket haul in the first innings and the vital wickets of Kamindu Mendis and skipper Dhananjaya de Silva in the second.
Kuhnemann now has 18 Test wickets at an average of 23.83 from his four outings in the Baggy Green Cap, all of them on Asian pitches in India and Sri Lanka.
It's the most productive start to a Test career by an Australia spin bowler since leggie Stuart MacGill captured 20 scalps (at 27.30) in his first four Tests in 1998.
Given the potency of left-arm finger spinners on subcontinent pitches, particularly against right-handed batters who must deal with deliveries turning away from them or skidding straight on, Kuhnemann was a key element of Australia's planning for Sri Lanka.
And when his availability was thrown into doubt just days before the Test touring party departed for a week-long pre-tour training camp in Dubai, McDonald and other members of Australia's brains trust were unsure how to fill that potential absence.
"We went into a bit of a holding pattern around that," McDonald revealed today.
"On the back of the surgeon's review there was a possibility (Kuhnemann might be fit), so that all unfolded late.
"Not sure where we would have ended up (if he was ruled out).
"But there was plenty of conversations around potentials and possibles - leg spin versus finger spin, two off spinners which we had played in Nagpur before (Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy).
"They were unfolding (discussions) but Matt solved a lot, and an outstanding performance."
Kuhnemann's injury meant he was the sole member of Australia's 16-man touring party in Sri Lanka not to have taken part in the preparatory training sessions held at the ICC Academy in Dubai.
But his fellow spinners as well as the team's specialist batters – who posted Australia's highest innings total in Asia with 6(dec)-654 – benefited hugely from the exercise which drew criticism from some quarters because the practice was not conducted in Sri Lanka.
The reason for holding practice across five consecutive days in the UAE rather than the rain-soaked island was partly weather related, but mostly the fact Australia could control the condition of practice pitches upon which they batted and bowled.
They began that week-long sojourn on a flat surface that built batting confidence before surfaces were altered to produce increasingly extreme spin, which helped prepare for any contingencies they might confront on the notoriously changeable Galle pitches.
Smith credited the Dubai stopover – to which he was a late arrival having also suffered an injury through his participation in the BBL – as vital in ensuring his players conducted focused training and had game plans sorted before they arrived in Sri Lanka.
And McDonald paid tribute to the ground staff at the ICC Academy for the work they put in to ensure the facilities provided the precise sort of preparation the squad required.
"I think the spinners getting to work on the shape and the pace of deliveries with (bowling coach and ex-New Zealand spinner) Dan Vettori," McDonald said when asked the specific benefits of the Dubai visit.
"The batting unit working through flat surface versus extreme surface, and the ground staff there did an amazing job in re-creating what we would potentially get here across a game.
"We were just working through all of those scenarios, conversations.
"It was a hectic time, we trained there for five days straight, put a lot of work in then we backed off when we got here.
"So it was to do the grunt work, get the conversations grounded around how we wanted to play, making sure we had great clarity when we landed here which I think we did.
"And I think that showed in the performance."
McDonald also revealed the idea that keeper-batter Josh Inglis might prove a useful addition to the Test team regardless of whether or not he took the gloves was born amid the 2023 ODI World Cup in India.
It was during Australia's semi-final encounter with South Africa at Kolkata, in which they had slumped to 5-137 in pursuit of the Proteas' total of 212 for a place in the final, that Inglis produced a nerveless 28 from 49 deliveries to guide the team home.
His ability to handle rival spinners Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi on a wearing track at Edens Gardens signalled to McDonald and his fellow selectors he had the game and the temperament to similarly succeed at Test level on Australia's next Asia assignment.
Inglis had been part of Test squads to England that year, and during the most recent home summer but got his chance at Galle and celebrated with the fastest century on debut by any Australia batter.
"Hugely excited for the way he performed," McDonald said while also acknowledging Australia would certainly take a different batting line-up into their World Test Championship Final meeting with South Africa at Lord's in June.
"He (Inglis) showed us some moments in one-day cricket that we felt could look good in Test match cricket in terms of his method.
"If you think back to the Kolkata innings against South Africa in a tricky one-day World Cup semi, his method there was almost like 'yeah, that looks as though it could work in Test match cricket'.
"And he's gone back to first-class level, performed at Shield so he got his just rewards in this one with a century on debut."
Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka
First Test: Australia win by an innings and 242 runs
Second Test: February 6-10, Galle (3.30pm AEDT)
Sri Lanka Test squad: Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka (subject to fitness), Oshada Fernando, Lahiru Udara, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Sonal Dinusha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nishan Peiris, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake
Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster
First ODI: February 12, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)
Second ODI: February 14, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)