Paine dispels Test fears after finger blow

Australian captain Tim Paine says he will be fit to play the second Test against India despite copping a blow to his troublesome finger while batting.

Tim Paine

Australian captain Tim Paine playing a pull shot on day five of the first Test match against India. (AAP)

Australian captain Tim Paine has declared he's in no doubt for the second Test against India after copping a blow to his long-troublesome finger while batting in Adelaide.

Paine was hit on his right index finger from a Mohammed Shami delivery on Monday's final day of play at Adelaide Oval.

Paine had the finger taped and continued batting before being dismissed after lunch for 41 by Jasprit Bumrah.

India went on to record a nailbiting 31-run win and take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series.

Questioned after play about the blow, Paine said he was certain to be available for the second Test starting on Friday in Perth.

"No doubt - I'm fine," he said.

Ex-Australian captain Ricky Ponting was among those who had expressed concern that Paine could have done serious damage to his troublesome digit.

"Where he's putting that tape on now is exactly where he broke his finger," Ponting said in commentary for the Seven Network.

"Right up in that joint, closest to the knuckle, is where had the bad break.

"He had a number of surgeries. It took him an eternity to get it right; he had titanium plates; he had screws inserted into his finger."

Paine, in 2010, broke the finger while batting in an All Stars game when struck by a ball from Dirk Nannes.

He had five operations on the finger, including having bone taken from his wrist and hip and grafted on to help the break knit.

Paine has said there's a plate and eight pins holding the finger together.

"It just wouldn't get better then, when it did, I would start to train again and it would break again," Paine said last year.

"The fact that the break across the top (of the finger) was quite big and, because I was holding the bat, the bottom had sort of shattered a little bit."

Paine said overcoming the mental anguish was just as difficult as recovering from the physical damage.

"You only have to look at my numbers in those few years when I came back," Paine said last year.

"I was battling mentally.

"I was out there thinking I was going to get hit and, if I did get hit, that I would never play again.

"It certainly rattled me a lot.

"The first step was actually going to speak to someone about that and be honest about it - that I was really battling."


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Source: AAP


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