NEWS
Follow UsAustralian white-ball skipper Aaron Finch and Steve Smith are recovering well from their respective injuries and should be available for this year's T20 World Cup. The latter is also expected to feature in the second half of the Indian Premier League in the United Arab Emirates, starting next month.
Smith didn't travel to West Indies and Bangladesh due to a left elbow injury. He also had some trouble with his elbow during the initial stage of the IPL earlier this year but still featured in six encounters for Delhi Capitals. Smith has been making steady progress and has started batting in the nets for an hour.
"It seems to be going really well. I know that he's been building up his batting time over the last couple of weeks – I know that would have been difficult to have a time limit on his net times," Finch, who himself is recovering from knee surgery, told Cricket.com.au.
"From all reports he's been really strict with that, making sure he doesn't overdo his elbow so it hinders his rehab. He's going really well. The last time I spoke to him he wasn't having any pain batting so that was a real positive. He's going to be such an important part of our campaign."
Talking about his recovery, Finch said: "I'm confident of that (being fit for the World Cup). It will be come down to pretty minimal match practice which I think being older and being around for quite a while plays into my hands a bit, having (previously recovered from) some injuries where you don't have a lot of lead time into a series.
"I think that will help me. The surgery went as well as it could have and I'm walking around with no pain, which is the most important thing at this stage."
Australia are placed in Group 1 with England, South Africa, West Indies and two other qualifying nations. They recently lost 1-4 against West Indies and Bangladesh and have now lost their last five bilateral T20I series.
The Australian batting line-up has struggled big time in the absence of Finch, Smith, David Warner, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis and the latter four will try to prepare themselves for the T20 World Cup by featuring in the remainder of the IPL 2021.