Australia are confident Steve Smith’s quad injury will not be an issue for the Test series against Sri Lanka after he missed a lead-in one-day international with the strain.
Smith pulled up sore while running between wickets in Australia’s loss to Sri Lanka on Thursday, before batting on with the injury.
He was then left out of Sunday’s third ODI, with Mitch Marsh returning in his place at No.3 and making a score of 10.
But Australian officials are hopeful that will be the last game Smith misses, believing he could return as soon as Tuesday for the fourth ODI or Friday for the fifth.
Regardless, they are confident all will be clear by the time the two-Test series starts on Wednesday week.
Australia have already endured a nightmare tour on the injury front, with with Ashton Agar (side), Marcus Stoinis (side), Sean Abbott (finger), Kane Richardson (hamstring), Mitchell Starc (finger) and Mitch Marsh (hamstring) all suffering blows.
However, they should be at full availability for the Test series. Starc is the only member of that list in Australia’s red-ball team and is expected to be fit to resume bowling in matches by that point.
Smith’s fitness will be crucial for Australia in the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy.
He was their only batter to find real consistency on their last tour of Sri Lanka in 2016, topping the run-scoring charts with 247 at an average of 41.16.
And while Australia’s bats had success on the sub-continent in Pakistan in March, those wickets did not turn anywhere near as much as has so far been the case in Sri Lanka.
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