Photo Credit: Perth Scorchers
Scorchers quick Jhye Richardson remains confident of returning in KFC Big Bash this December after he revealed his recovery from shoulder surgery is ahead of schedule.Richardson underwent a shoulder reconstruction on his right bowling shoulder in late April to repair the damage he first sustained while diving for a ball in a one-day international against Pakistan in March last year.
The 23-year-old subsequently missed Australia’s World Cup and Ashes campaigns in 2019 but returned for the start of the 2019-20 summer and made in his international comeback in the third ODI in South Africa in March.
While he was still able to bowl at top speed, he was unable to properly throw or fully commit in the field, which led Richardson to take advantage of the coronavirus-forced downtime and have more surgery in the hope of not missing too much cricket this summer.
“The plan as it stands to get back to competitive cricket is around the Big Bash,” Richardson told cricket.com.au.
“When you put things into perspective that’s not really that far away. If cricket does start back up again and the Big Bash is going ahead, in my eyes that’s not too far away.
“Hopefully we come out of the back end of it all going well and it was a big success.
“The first six weeks (post-surgery) were in a sling and now we’re almost at week 12 so starting to ramp things up again, looking to start batting again in the next couple of weeks.
“It’s looking really, really good. If anything, it’s probably a little bit ahead of schedule, which is really promising.
“These things ebb and flow a little bit so to be where I am at 12 weeks is really positive.”
Richardson says the entire WACA ‘family’ has been “incredibly supportive”.
“We speak about WACA family so highly and it honestly is like a family – everyone’s got your back, there’s never going to be anyone at the WACA that’s going to be against you, regardless of what your discipline is and we’re so thankful of that,” Richardson said.
“The physios, the doctors, the coaches – (head coach Adam) Voges has been outstanding, really understanding.
When he was on the field last summer, Richardson collected 15 wickets for the Scorchers, the equal most for the club alongside leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed and overseas recruit Chris Jordan.
While the Scorchers finished in sixth place to narrowly miss the finals, Richardson says his game developed in leaps and bounds due to the impact of the experienced Jordan, a veteran of 192 T20s.
“To have him at the Scorchers, that wealth of experience, to have him at mid-on or mid-off was definitely a big step in why there was a lot of improvement,” he said.
“He was really good at reassurance and he helped with a lot of clarity on the field, especially for our young bowlers.
“He’s been around for a while, he knows his stuff, he’s played a lot of T20 cricket, so experience from him was a big factor in my improvement.”
