Smith passes baseball-cage test ahead of 2nd Test vs West Indies as “Hitting the ball felt completely fine.”
Smith passes baseball-cage test as he is ready for the real stuff.
After suffering a finger injury that prevented him from playing in the first Test match against the West Indies, Steven Smith came up with a clever way to heal by locating a baseball batting cage in New York where he could practise throwdowns.
When Smith dropped Temba Bavuma at Lord’s during the World Test Championship final, he suffered a complex dislocation of his right little finger. Although the injury was horrifying and Smith felt “sick” seeing it, with teammates observing that he became pale, Smith chose not to have surgery.
He decided to make the five-hour trip to New York, where he owns an apartment, because he was constrained in his options during the early stages of his recuperation and had to watch how much he perspired.
In his second session in the cage, Smith started facing tennis balls and soft cricket balls before progressing to hard ones. The Australian medical staff was pleased with Smith’s development and sent the tape back to Barbados.
“My mate actually told me about it, which was ideal because it was pretty warm there [in New York],” he said. “Underneath this bridge there was a batting cage, and he was able to throw me a few balls there, so it was good to be in the shade, it was pretty hot there.”ac
“For me, it’ll just feel like training as normal, I think,” he said. “I don’t really feel any pain or anything. [It’s] just getting used to the splint on and the slight limited movement. It’s not too bad, I’ve got a lot of movement there now, so that feels good. Hitting the ball felt completely fine.
“Fielding some balls in front of the wicket will probably be the strangest thing for me, I don’t think I’ve ever done that in a Test match. Fielding at either probably mid-on or mid-off or fine leg, is a bit different to standing at the second or first slip.”