Australian Bowler Jhye Richardson Reflects On His Injury Troubles In 2021/22

Australia's right-arm quick bowler Jhye Richardson reflected on his injury troubles in the 2021/22 season, saying that everything around him broke due to the stop-start situation caused by the injuries.

Though Richardson made his comeback in Test cricket through the day-night Ashes Test at Adelaide, he missed the rest of the three matches as well as a tour of Pakistan due to shin and hamstring injuries respectively.

Keeping his injury troubles in mind, he has now been included only in the T20I leg of Australia's tour of Sri Lanka and will join Australia 'A' team squad in the country for two List A and as many first-class matches.

"It got a point where I never had a really good block (of time) to really get conditioned. Playing a Test match, it got to a point where I was trying to condition with game time and it's never ideal when you're trying to do that at maximum intensity."

"Everything just sort of broke. So that was the whole idea, especially with (missing) the Pakistan series, to try and increase my longevity. When you look back at it, I was closer to breaking down than I originally thought. And in the end, it happened," said Richardson on the Unplayable Podcast.

Richardson is aware that with Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins being front-runners for the pacers' spots in Test eleven and with Josh Hazlewood as well as Scott Boland waiting in the wings, winning back his Test spot in Sri Lanka will be a challenge and is happy being slotted into the 'A' team.

"That's what they've gone for and I'm happy with that, to be honest. If I'm looking at all the positives of playing the Australia A four-day stuff, it's a great (re)introduction for me. This period I've had over the last couple of months of building up and bowling a lot of balls, it just looks like the next step of progressing with this conditioning block."

"I do love long-format cricket, so it's just another step to getting back from my hamstring and getting back to playing good consistent cricket. I think it is (as hard as ever to win a Test fast-bowling spot), especially with Scott doing as well as he did. He's another great option. While it is hard to crack in and get a consistent spot, it's a wonderful problem for Australia to have."

Amidst the injuries, Richardson had made his Test comeback memorable by picking his maiden five-wicket haul in Adelaide. But the pacer, who missed out on a central contract and had troubled opener, Haseeb Hameed, felt that coming back into the longest format of the game was a bit of a blur for him.

"Leading into that game, I felt like I was bowling really well and with the pink ball, it always gives you a fair bit of confidence as well, knowing that it's going to do a little bit, especially early. And bowling with the new ball as well. It's something that I hadn't really done in Test match cricket as well. So that was new. I think it was just overwhelming to get back out there and it was a bit of blur, that first innings."