Cricket news: Callum Ferguson makes a strong comeback after a year-long knee injury
Callum Ferguson made a strong start to his return from a knee injury scoring whirlwind 47 off 27 for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Australia-c844 in a Champions League T20 clash against Lions at SuperSport Park, Centurion on Sunday 12th September. The venue of his comeback was ironically same that forced him away from high-level cricket last October after he wrenched his knee while fielding in the final of Champions Trophy against Black Caps. The knee injury kept him away from the grounds for nearly a full year.
His pugnacious innings bagged Redbacks 11-run win over Lions and left him with some positive memories of Centurion, the venue for his comeback. The middle-order batsman said that having a victory at SuperSport Park was fantastic but the more exciting thing was getting through the game without damaging the recently recovered knee.
"I'd be lying if I didn't say it didn't cross my mind at some stage [to be at the same ground]," said Callum Ferguson. "Once you get out there everything else falls into the background and you really do concentrate on competing. It was fantastic to have a win but also to get through the game with the knee still intact.”
Although Ferguson’s return to the high-level cricket was after a notable gap of 11 to 12 months but South Australia’s 11 runs win over Lions in their opening game of Airtel Champions League T20 was a nice icing on the cake for him.
"It was obviously a long 11 or 12 months but it was fantastic to get back out there and be under the pressure of a full-on competition again with my team-mates. To have a win was nice icing on the cake for us. It was fantastic to get back out there with the boys," said the 25-year-old middle-order batsman of Australia.
Despite his strong comeback, Ferguson is not expecting a return into the one-day side of Australia for the tour of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 that kicks off from October the 1st as it would be too soon to make a comeback to elite cricket. During almost a month long tour, Australia will play two Test matches and three One Day Internationals. Before facing off India in the first Test of the two match series on 1st October, the Kangaroos will play a three-day Tour Game from 25 to 27 September, against Board President XI.
Ferguson’s last year injury was in particular disappointing, as it came at the time when 25 years old right-handed batsman was just establishing himself as promising one-day batsman. Ferguson made his ODI debut on 6th February 2009 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/New-Zealand-c754 at Melbourne. During his eight months pre-injury career he played 25 matches and logged 599 runs at an average of 46.07. Settling in well at No 5-6 in the batting line-up of Australia, Ferguson posted five fifties.
The Kangaroos will be eager for Ferguson to make a comeback to the national side at some point during the forthcoming summer. Ferguson has got the ongoing Airtel Champions League T20 and a couple of early-season domestic matches for South Australia before the coming summer to make an impact on the selectors.
Ferguson said that he would love to play for Kangaroos this summer but it is a matter of selection. Ferguson is well aware of the fact that the responsibility lies more upon him, if he wants to get selectors nod for the coming summer as he said that he will prove that he can play persistently making it through a full series.
"I'm hoping I'll be able to do that in this tournament and fingers crossed my body holds up well. At this stage it's going really well. I'm not holding my breath on getting selected in that team, but it would be really nice."
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