Steve Smith returns over Josh Inglis in XI, cricket news, injury

Less than three weeks after badly injuring a finger in the World Test Championship, champion batter Steve Smith will return for the second Test of the Frank Worrell Trophy in place of Josh Inglis, Australian captain Pat Cummins confirmed on Wednesday.

It will be 20 days since Smith suffered a compound fracture when spilling Temba Bavuma in the infancy of a critical innings from the South African skipper, with the fact the veteran was standing in closer than usual due to a dead pitch contributing to the injury.

Having spent almost a week at his New York home recuperating, Smith joined the Australians after their 159-run victory in the opening Test and has looked in good order in the nets ahead of the Grenada Test.

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Australia XI: Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Cameron Green, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Beau Webster, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

But the 36-year-old will not be able to field in the slips due to the injury, with Cummins confirming the superstar will instead spend time roaming the outfield at fine leg and also at mid-off in a bid to minimise the risk of further damage.

“He’s ready to go. The finger held up well. He was really happy, particularly batting,” the Australian captain told reporters.

Smith opens up on gruesome finger injury | 02:32

“Fielding we still potentially need to manage it a little bit, so he might not be in the slips too often. Maybe for spin he’ll be OK, but (for the) quicks he might need to wait another week.

“So you might see him running around a bit more … probably some variation (between) mid-off and fine leg, (but) we’ll see if he lasts a few days down at fine leg. I reckon he’ll be itching to get up in the circle pretty quick.”

West Indian coach Daren Sammy said that Smith added another layer of difficulty to the hosts hopes of squaring the series after what was a largely bowler-dominated first Test in which Australia’s top order again failed to fire.

“He’s a quality guy, a quality player,” Sammy said.

“Australia is still strong (without him) because of the system they have. They keep on producing guys. But we’ve seen when we add pressure as a bowling group, we did get 20 wickets in the Test and that’s the first step towards winning. Steve Smith, if he comes in, poses a different challenge to us.”

Cummins said Smith’s experience was invaluable given the Australians were playing at venue where they have never played a Test at before.

“That’s one of his great strengths. He’s scored runs all over the world and that means that while he’s not played a game here, he seems to work out pretty quickly what needs to be done and where your scoring areas are,” the Australian skipper said.

How Smith's return could impact Aus | 09:35

“Of course, having that knowledge is going to be helpful, particularly for the guys that haven’t really played too many Tests or first-class games on similar wickets.

“There’s been four Test matches here, and they’ve all been spread out so it’s hard to know, but it looked like a pretty good wicket … a pretty even coverage of grass.

“It’s fun coming in when there’s a few unknowns and you’ve got to think on your feet and you’re not quite sure how a game is going to play out.”

While Smith was always certain to return to the fray once recovered, it is a blow for Inglis, who failed to further his claims when contributing just 17 runs in two innings in Bridgetown.

The West Indies are uncertain how the pitch will play and are weighing up a decision between whether to include seamer Anderson Phillip in place of spinner Jomel Warrican.

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