‘Thought he was gone’: Brisbane ‘magician’ behind Aussie’s heroics after gruesome injury

Australian coach Andrew McDonald has confessed he thought spinner Matthew Kuhnemann would miss the Test tour of Sri Lanka following last month’s gruesome thumb injury.

During a Big Bash League match at the Gabba, the Brisbane Heat tweaker suffered a compound dislocation to his right thumb after misfielding a shot from Hobart Hurricanes wicketkeeper Matthew Wade at the non-striker’s end.

Dr Steve Frederiksen, who was coincidentally at the Gabba as a spectator, popped Kuhnemann’s thumb back into place before performing surgery on the 28-year-old the following morning, stabilising the damaged joint with two metal nails.

Two weeks later, Kuhnemann claimed career-best figures of 9-149, including his second five-wicket haul in Tests, to help Australia retain the Warne–Muralitharan Trophy with a thumping victory over Sri Lanka in Galle.

“(Kuhnemann) went out there and performed, he had no inhibitions leading in around fielding,” McDonald told reporters on Saturday afternoon.

“It was a real surprise for me. I don’t know how it works really, I thought he was gone. But as it progressed and got closer to the Test match, he was pretty much a lock three days out.”

Kuhnemann missed the Test squad’s pre-tout training camp at Dubai’s ICC Academy due to his injury, joining the Australians in Galle days before the series opener. The Queenslander, who represents Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield, bowled and fielded pain-free across the four-day contest despite nursing a compound fracture in his heavily-bandaged thumb.

“A lot of credit has got to go to the surgeon who did his thumb,” Australian captain Steve Smith said during the post-match press conference.

“He’s a magician I think, not a surgeon.”

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McDonald confessed the national selectors had not formulated a plan for how to replace Kuhnemann if he was unavailable for the two-Test campaign.

“I’m not sure where we would have ended up,” McDonald explained.

“It was a good thing that he got the all clear to come over.

“We went into a bit of a holding pattern around that … there were plenty of conversations around potentials, possibles, leg-spin, finger-spin, two off-spinners, which we played in Nagpur before. So they were unfolding, but Matt solved the lot.”

Kuhnemann, who made his Test debut against India in 2023, has taken 18 wickets at 23.83, including a career-best 5-16 during Australia’s victory in Indore. He could prove a crucial figure for Australia’s 2027 Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign in India.

Elsewhere, McDonald backed veteran opener Usman Khawaja to continue playing Test cricket through to next year’s Ashes series and potentially beyond. The 38-year-old struggled to tame Indian weapon Jasprit Bumrah during the recent home summer but cracked a career-best 232 in Galle to silence his doubters.

“We still think he’s got plenty of cricket left in him, and I think he’s been clear on that,” McDonald said.

“Tough summer, Bumrah, I think that’s probably where we landed in our summary of that one.”

The second Test between Sri Lanka and Australia gets underway at the same venue on Thursday, with the first ball scheduled for 3.30pm AEDT.