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Leg-spinner Bryce McGain says his Test dream remains alive despite the injury which ended his Indian tour.
The 36-year-old arrived home in Melbourne yesterday, after sustaining what he described as a “strained armpit” last week in his first full practice session in India.
The injury left Australia’s spin stocks alarmingly bare.
Off-spinner Jason Krezja, who produced figures of 0-199 from 31 overs in a warm-up match, was competing with part-time leggie Cameron White for the spinner’s spot that would most likely have gone to McGain in this week’s first Test.
McGain, who estimated it would take between four to six weeks before he could bowl again, said if the spinner’s berth was still up for grabs during the coming summer’s home Test matches, he would be in the frame.
“Absolutely, I’m confident I’ll be back bowling well after my rehab, so I’m looking forward to that,” McGain told reporters at Victorian training today.
“(The injury was) bad, bad timing, I acknowledge that, but I just hope to rest up, do the rehab and be ready to reload and play for Victoria and win games and bowl well.
“I’m not going to be able to swing straight back into it, but after I’ve bowled a couple of times I’ll be ready to go.”
McGain, who was first injured in the opening match of the Australia A tour of India in early September, before last week’s recurrence, said his brief experience with the Australian squad had been encouraging, despite the sudden end.
“They were really excited that I was the new kid on the block in the group, they were excited with that and they were excited that I was bowling at training and things like that,” he said.
“Obviously they’re equally as disappointed that I’m not going to be over there for the series but they’re looking forward and encouraging to have me back there.”
He said he had learnt from painful experience not to set a precise timeframe on his return.
“That probably contributed to me getting injured, that there were timeframes set around games,” McGain said.
“In doing that I probably didn’t take the right amount of time, in hindsight you can say that.”
McGain said either Krejza or White faced a test of their mental resilience, as well as their bowling skills, if selected, given the Indian batsmen’s love of spin bowling.
“I certainly spent a lot of time … getting my head around how I was going to take that challenge and no doubt it’s going to be tough for whoever takes that spin bowling berth in the first Test, they’re going to really challenge whoever it is,” he said.
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