Jhye Richardson’s World Cup hopes boosted after positive scans

Richardson seemed in considerable pain after doing his shoulder in the second ODI in Sharjah. He was immediately ruled out for the rest of the series and flown to Perth for further assessment.

The Australia team physio, Richard Saw, said in a statement that while the injury isn’t as bad as it could have been, they were yet to decide whether Richardson will need surgery.

“Jhye Richardson has had scans on his right shoulder to assess the extent of his injury,” said Saw. “The scans demonstrated the usual soft tissue damage we expect following a dislocation but fortunately has excluded any bone damage or fracture.

“We are hopeful that Jhye will not require surgery but he will see a shoulder specialist early next week for a further opinion. We will be able to provide an update in respect to next steps once we have all the information on the table.”

The update comes as a significant boost to Richardson, who has been a thrill for Australia since the turn of the year. Richardson has 24 wickets in just 12 ODIs, including 4/26 against India in Sydney.

He made his Test debut against Sri Lanka in January – he has six wickets in two matches – and had returned a fine 2/16 in the first ODI against Pakistan in the UAE.

The scans renewed Richardson’s hopes of playing in the World Cup. "Everyone in the Australian camp is hopeful, I'm hopeful and in high spirits," he was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au. "I'm not ruling out the World Cup at this stage, that's definitely not an option. It's all about getting the shoulder right at this stage.

"JL (Justin Langer) said he's pleased with how I've been going about my business, I was really satisfied with how I played in India and going into the Pakistan series as well I was happy with the way I was playing. The shoulder injury is unfortunate, but these things do happen and I'm eager to bounce back quickly."