Finch expects early return to cricket

Melbourne, May 9 (IANS) Injured Australian opener Aaron Finch is planning to return to cricket a month earlier than expected and now reckons he will miss just one week of his stint with English county side Yorkshire.

Finch, 17 days after a tendon surgery, said his rehab was ahead of schedule and had set himself an "aggressive" timeline to return to cricket.

"I'm hopeful to be back in six to eight weeks. The physio is not quite as aggressive as me. I'm seeing the surgeon and he's really positive as well. Hopefully, I'll get to Yorkshire about a week later than I was originally planned to from the IPL (Indian Premier League), which would be a great result personally to get over there and play cricket," Finch was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Cricket Australia (CA) team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris is no stranger to hamstring injuries and Finch says he could not have been in better hands.

"Luckily (Kountouris) has been through quite a few of these with Michael (Clarke) and the Marsh brothers and (Nathan) Coulter-Nile so he's right across the rehab and recovery. It's second to none. I couldn't be in better hands," Finch said on Friday.

The opener slumped to the ground after snapping the tendon in his left leg in an IPL encounter for the Mumbai Indians against Rajasthan Royals on April 14.

"It was just a big pop. Just one of those things; I didn't feel anything in the lead-up to it. I wasn't sore or tight. There wasn't any muscle damage which was quite strange, the tendon just snapped," he said.

The swashbuckling top-order bat added that post-surgery he has been walking around the house, eager to get back and play cricket. "I've just been walking around the house with my bat in my hand wanting to play and wanting to train."