Australia’s men’s cricket team coach Andrew McDonald expressed surprise at Matthew Kuhnemann’s rapid recovery from a thumb injury that could have sidelined him from the tour of Sri Lanka.

“I thought he was gone,” McDonald said after Australia’s historic win, which marked their largest Test victory in Asia and the fourth-largest in the men’s team’s history.

The national selection panel, of which McDonald is a member, had not finalised plans for a replacement had Kuhnemann been unable to play.

In his first Test appearance in nearly two years, Kuhnemann delivered an outstanding performance, taking nine wickets in Australia’s record victory by an innings and 242 runs during the first match of the two-Test series in Galle.

The 28-year-old achieved his best match figures to date while recovering from a compound fracture of his right thumb, sustained during a fielding incident with Brisbane Heat in the BBL just weeks prior. After surgery in Brisbane, where two metal pins were inserted to stabilize his thumb, Kuhnemann rejoined the Australian squad in Sri Lanka, surprising both teammates and coaches with his fitness.

“But as it got closer to the Test match, he was pretty much a lock three days out,” McDonald said, “it was a real surprise for me, I don’t know how it works really.”

Australia’s stand-in captain, Steve Smith, expressed astonishment at Kuhnemann’s ability to bowl and field effectively following his thumb injury, quipping that the surgery must have been performed by a magician rather than a surgeon.