Michael Clarke returns to the crease on the second day

Australian captain Michael Clarke has defied the odds and made a surprising comeback on the second day of the Adelaide Test.

Clarke, in visible pain and moving gingerly, walked out to the middle with Steve Smith at the start of the day’s play – with Australia resuming at 6/354.

Clarke reinjured his chronic back injury yesterday after pulling out of a pull shot against Ishant Sharma yesterday. He suffered crippling back spasms and retired hurt on 60no.

The Australian medical team worked extensively on Clarke overnight to try and get him fit for today.

Team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said “the doc’s been sorting him out with some medication and he also had an injection yesterday in the local hospital…we’re trying to alleviate the muscle spasms and other things that cause pain and make sure we give him the best possible chance to be able to bat.”

After a light net session before play on the second day, Clarke made the decision to play on.

The injury is unrelated to his left hamstring problems and Kountouris stated that it looks like a relapse of “the significant back injury” that kept him out of the Champions trophy tournament 18 months ago.

Clarke has looked to be in a significant amount of pain since restarting his innings, moving with a limited range of motion and even shouting out in pain after attempting a pull shot of Ishant Sharma in the 94th over.

Still, he is moving closer and closer towards a century and seems determined to build a big partnership with Steve Smith.