Follow UsWith 200 Test catches to his name, Steve Smith is one of the best and the safest slip fielders to have played the game, but he is also someone who has the tendency to occasionally drop a few.
One such drop came at a crucial juncture on day three of the ongoing World Test Championship (WTC) Final, with Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma getting a reprieve on the ninth ball he faced.
Mitchell Starc, from around the wicket, targeted Bavuma’s hips and as he looked to work the ball through the on-side, a leading outside edge took the ball straight to Smith at second slip.
The caveat here was that Smith was standing significantly closer than he usually would, since all slip fielders have moved closer due to the lack of bounce on the surface. Smith was standing so close that he was wearing a helmet.
The catch went down as it came too quickly to Smith, but the bigger concern for Australia was that their talisman rushed to the dressing room almost IMMEDIATELY, grimacing in pain. He was helped to the dressing room by the physios but Smith was anguishing in pain as he bit his hand on the way back to the pavilion.
There’s no information about the injury but it looked like the former Aussie skipper had dislocated or fractured one of his fingers while attempting to take the catch.
It’s a massive concern for Australia as in a couple of weeks’ time, they have a three-Test series away in West Indies coming up.