On the night of his back surgery, Australian all-rounder Cameron Green got a poignant message that helped all along—a "special" message of inspiration from India's top fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah.
Green, who had a stress fracture last season, chose to undergo surgery in October despite the chance of natural healing in nine-to-twelve months. The encouragement from Bumrah, who had also gone through this experience, made Green feel more confident about undergoing surgery.
"Jasprit Bumrah called the night before I was having surgery. He was midway through a Test match in India," Green informed the media.
Just a couple things like that really make it special and makes you feel a lot better about it. To get a guy like him to call and then to see him in the summer, to see how well he's obviously doing post-surgery, gave me a lot of confidence," he added.
In the 2023 IPL season, Green represented the Mumbai Indians, while Bumrah was recovering from the same surgery. The Indian pacer had previously been absent from the 2022 T20 World Cup, but came back strongly, playing a pivotal role in India's 2023 ODI World Cup final campaign and making a big contribution to their T20 World Cup win later that year.
Bumrah's dominant comeback continued in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where he was voted Player of the Series after a phenomenal haul of 32 wickets, leading India to their only victory in the five-match series.
Similarly, 26-year-old Green found inspiration in other Australian bowlers Jason Behrendorff and Ben Dwarshuis, who had also had the same surgeries. In an interview on cricket.com.au's Unplayable Podcast, Green discussed the reason behind the operation.
The primary reason for (the operation) was to take down some bone – I've obviously had some trauma in my L4, and additional bone had just formed on that section of the spine," he explained.
"By doing that, it forced my spine not to be able to bend as well, and it was probably smashing up against this new bone that wasn't helping it flex. That put a bit too much pressure (on the L4 vertebrae) that I'd actually broken the facet joint on the other side, which was quite rare for a back injury," he said.
Green is set to play as a specialist batter in the coming World Test Championship Final against South Africa, which starts this week. He enters the high-pressure game after a bountiful run of form, notching three centuries off five county games for Gloucestershire.
"The silver lining to having back injuries is I've got four chances only to be a batter," he said.
"I thought my game's always been solid at those times. I'm always going to continue bowling, but you're so much more at ease [with] half a game to stress about. When you're bowling and batting, there's so much more you're doing bowling wise to keep yourself in shape and ready to play. It does take something away from batting. So, definitely, just batting is pleasant."
"I took exactly what I wanted from it. To get back playing some professional cricket was precisely what I needed after a couple of months away," Green said.
Green generally batted at No. 4 before the injury but now finds himself off that spot with Steve Smith reoccupying it. He might have to rise to No. 3—a position he has only held once in his first-class career.
"You develop the whole way up, you talk to anyone around here, they've certainly batted in the top three or four all of their junior career," he said.
"I wasn't any different, batting three until you reach first-class cricket. None at all batting at three when you've done it your entire life."
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