On day four of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s, Steve Smith walked out to bat again in Australia’s first innings soon after going off due to a blow on the back of his head by a Jofra Archer bouncer. While many questioned this decision, in light of Smith’s eventual withdrawal on the fifth day, Cricket Australia has lent its support to the team doctor who gave the green light.
The in-form batsman was ruled out of the match on the final day after complaining of head ache and grogginess when he woke up. This raised the question of whether he should’ve walked out to bat again not long after the incident.
Alex Kountouris, Cricket Australia’s manager of sports medicine, stated on Monday that the board was satisfied by the protocol followed by the team doctor Richard Saw.
“The reality is only about one in five or six head impacts end up in concussion,” said Kountouris. “If we pulled out every player who had a head impact, we’d be pulling out 80 per cent of players who don’t have a concussion and taking them out of the game. So that would be an overreaction.
“He [Smith] didn’t have a concussion at the time [Saturday]. If we took him out of the game, we would have been leaving him out of the game for no reason other than what we saw on the field. Our doctor is an expert in his field. He’s trained to pick up even the minor signs of concussion. Everything he did was according to the protocol, he was very thorough and ...we’re 100% happy with what happened over there.”
Marnus Labuschagne replaced Smith and became the first concussion substitute in international cricket. The right-hander scored 59 crucial runs to help Australia draw the match at Lord’s and retain a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.