The Australian left-arm spinner Ashton Agar will miss the remainder of the two matches of the five-match series after he suffered a finger injury adding misery to the Australian camp. He will fly back to Australia and is likely to miss the summer.
Agar suffered a finger injury while trying to stop a bowl on the boundary line on his non-bowling arm in the third match of the series while the Indian team was chasing a target of 294 runs. Richard Saw, the Australia team doctor confirmed that the young bowler might require a surgery and is likely to miss the whole of summer.
“Following the conclusion of the match, he went for x-rays, which have confirmed a fracture of the finger. He will return home to Australia and consult a specialist with a possibility of surgery,” the team doctor said in a press statement.
The 23-year-old cricketer was not included in the squad initially but was called for after Adam Zampa was hit all around the park in the first match of the series in Chennai. Smith was critical of Zampa after he went for 66 runs in the first match and preferred Agar over him. It seems like the Australian captain now will have to rely on the leg-spinner for the last two matches to turn on their favor.
After the loss, Steve Smith while talking about choosing Agar over Zampa said, “You can have an argument for that. I thought Ashton (Agar) bowled well at times. Probably a little full to (Hardik) Pandya at times. He was obviously sent out to attack him. I thought that was our best chance of getting him out while he was trying to go after him. He didn”t execute his skills as well we would have liked. And when he did get it right, bowled a bit wider, bowled a bit shorter. That wasn”t our day.”
Smith & Co will like to regain their composure when they take on India in the penultimate match of the series on September 28 at Bengaluru.