Ryan Harris. Photo / Christine Cornege
No prizes for guessing the advice Australian quick Ryan Harris would give any sportsman contemplating potentially serious surgery: "Get a second opinion, mate" would be the gist of it.
That's what the 30-year-old Queensland new ball bowler did when he faced season-ending knee surgery two months ago.
"I had two
operations on my knee in the winter," Harris said yesterday. "I was very close to getting another one, a cartilage repair, which would have ended my season.
"I went down to Melbourne and had a second opinion and lucky I did. The doctor stuck me with some needles and it seems to have worked so far."
Instead it's been Harris giving international opposition the jab since his recall to the Australian ODI side in late January.
He shaped up as a possible one-game wonder when he made his debut against South Africa in Hobart 14 months ago.
Injuries held up his progress and at the start of this summer he might have just squeezed in at the bottom of a list of Australia's top 10 fast-medium candidates across the three forms of the game.
But when Peter Siddle was injured early in the ODI series against Pakistan in January, Harris got the call.
He took five for 43 at Adelaide on January 26; five for 19 at Perth three days later and hasn't looked back since, playing in 10 of Australia's 11 ODIs since being called in.
In 11 ODIs altogether, he's taken 28 wickets at a fine 14.75 apiece bowling sharp outswing and keeping the heat on the batsmen.
In the first three Chappell Hadlee matches, Harris has taken seven wickets at 19, and looks like he's loving every minute of his time centre stage.
His dream run continued when he was named in Australia's squad for the two tests starting next week.
"To be able to get back to where I am and take wickets ... has been very relieving.
"Getting back in the Australian team, it happened so quickly. I promised myself I didn't want to be that one-hit wonder, and still don't. It's been good fun."
