London, June 15 (IANS) Australian veteran batter Steve Smith, who picked up a finger injury during the ICC World Test Championship Final against Australia, provided a prognosis surrounding his return to international cricket and remain hopeful to feature in Australia’s upcoming three-match Test series against the West Indies in the Caribbean.

Steve Smith hurt his finger when attempting a catch and later was sent for an X-ray at a nearby hospital after suffering a compound dislocation in his right little finger during Day Three’s play.

The initial diagnosis for Smith is reasonably good, with the 36-year-old lucky to have avoided surgery and still a chance to feature in the upcoming three-match Test series against the West Indies, starting from June 25.

“I will be in a splint for eight weeks now and I may be able to play with it in a couple of weeks. It will depend on my functionality and what I am able to do, so it was probably the best result I could have hoped for,” Smith was quoted by ICC.

Smith was standing in close at wide first slip with a helmet on when South Africa captain Temba Bavuma edged one into the cordon off left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc, and the Australia veteran grassed the chance with Bavuma on just two at the time. The missed chance cost the Aussies dearly as the skipper went on to score 66 and feature heavily in a match-winning partnership with opener Aiden Markram.

“I was standing pretty close with the helmet on and as we saw throughout the game, a lot of nicks went short of first and second slip. The plan was to stand pretty close and I lost sight of it with the angle that Mitchell Starc was bowling and it kind of went inside Bavuma’s hip and I didn’t quite see it until really late and it kind of dipped on me a little bit late too as well.

“It was tricky, it didn’t go in my hand very well and fortunately there is no break there and it just split the skin and dislocated it which made me feel pretty ill at that stage,” Smith said.

The injury incident is the latest in a long set of dramas Smith has encountered at Lord’s over the years, with the Australian admitting he now has a host of mixed emotions when recalling his recent appearances at the famous north London venue.

“I have a love/hate relationship with this place now. I have had some good memories here and some not so good ones as well. Getting hit in the head by Jofra (Archer) in 2019 and now having my digit knocked off out here yesterday as well. But it’s a wonderful place to play cricket and I have enjoyed it here and it was a real good game of cricket again.”

–IANS

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