Injury forces change to Australia squad for West Indies Tests but it’s not Steve Smith

Cricket Australia has made a forced change to their Test squad for the upcoming West Indies series after uncapped seamer Brendan Doggett suffered a minor hip issue and is ruled out of the Test tour. Though picked up as a travelling reserve, Doggett has returned home for treatment, with the touring side naming bowling all-rounder Seam Abbot as his replacement. Luckily for the Australians, Steve Smith retained his place in the squad despite dislocating his finger during the WTC Final.

While the 31-year-old seamer was set to be part of the squad that faces the West Indies next, his absence brought in Abbott, who was part of the group that toured Sri Lanka early this year. Abbott, 33, bagged 6/99 in his last first-class match for New South Wales in March, finishing the Sheffield Shield season with 19 wickets in three matches. His only game since is a T20 match for Quetta Gladiators in the PSL.

Smith escapes a major scare

While standing at the slips during the just-concluded WTC Final against South Africa, Smith and Australia suffered a massive blow, with the gun fielder almost breaking his little finger while attempting to complete a catch. Though Smith dropped that one, it did worse to his finger, dislocating it altogether, with Oz forced to bring his replacement for the rest of the game.

Luckily, that was the fourth innings, and Australia wasn't batting, but Smith’s latest injury put his participation in the West Indies tour in doubt.

"Fortunately, there's no break there, it just split the skin, which dislocated it and made me feel pretty ill at that stage," Smith said at Lord's after the WTC final. "But in a splint for eight weeks now, and I may be able to play with it in a couple of weeks.

"It'll depend on my functionality and what I'm able to do, but it's probably the best result I could have hoped for."

Meanwhile, head coach Andrew McDonald also addressed this issue, saying if Smith remains unavailable for the series opener, then Australia would have to look into their talent pool for a replacement.

"If Steve wasn't available for the first Test match, that would lend itself to having extra batting coverage," he said. "(because) If we lost another player, then we'd be short in terms of what we had on the bench and available."