Bumrah’s ‘special’ message filled Cameron Green with confidence ahead of his surgery

A “special” message from Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah on the eve of Cameron Green’s back surgery gave the Australian all-rounder some much-needed reassurance about his decision to go under the knife.

Green had suffered a stress fracture last year. While the injury could have healed naturally over nine to twelve months, he chose to undergo surgery in October.

“Jasprit Bumrah reached out the night before I was getting surgery. He was in the middle of a Test match in India,” Green told reporters.

“Just a few things like that are really special and makes you feel a lot better about it. To get someone like him to reach out and then to watch him during the summer, to see how good he is obviously post-surgery, filled me with a lot of confidence,” Green told reporters.

Green had spent the 2023 IPL season with the Mumbai Indians while Bumrah was sidelined, recovering from the same procedure. The Indian pace ace had missed the 2022 T20 World Cup but made a remarkable comeback post-surgery, playing a key role in India’s run to the 2023 ODI World Cup final and powering the Men in Blue to the T20 World Cup title last year.

Bumrah then cemented his red-hot form in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he was named Player of the Series after bagging 32 wickets and leading India to their only win in the five-match series.

The 26-year-old Green also received encouraging feedback from other bowlers who had undergone similar operations, including Jason Behrendorff and New South Wales pacer Ben Dwarshuis.

“The main reason for (the operation) was to shave down some bone – I’ve obviously had a bit of trauma in my L4, and extra bone had just developed on that part of the spine,” Green told cricket.com.au’s ‘Unplayable Podcast’.

“By doing that, it forced my spine not to be able to bend as well, and it was probably smashing up against this new bone that wasn’t helping it flex. That put a bit too much pressure (on the L4 vertebrae) that I’d actually broken the facet joint on the other side, which was quite rare for a back injury,” he added.

Green is expected to play the WTC Final against South Africa, starting this week, as a specialist batter. He heads to the marquee Test on the back of three centuries in five county cricket matches for Gloucestershire.

“The silver lining to having back injuries is I’ve got four chances only to be a batter,” he said.

“I felt like my game’s always been good around those periods. I’m always going to keep bowling, but you’re so much more relaxed [with] half a game to worry about. When you’re bowling and batting, there’s so much more you have to do bowling wise to keep yourself fit and ready to play. It does take away from batting. So, certainly, just batting is nice.”

“I got exactly what I wanted out of it. To get back playing some professional cricket was exactly what I needed after a few months off.” Before his injury, Green had batted at No 4. but with Steve Smith back at two down, Green might have to bat at No. 3, a position he had only batted once in his first-class career.

“You grow up through your whole career, you speak to anyone here, they’ve definitely batted in the top three or four throughout their whole junior career,” he said.

“I was no different, batting three until you get to first-class cricket. Absolutely no issues batting at three when you’ve done it your whole life.”