Melbourne, Dec 29, 2022, IANS

Melbourne, Dec 29 (IANS) Set to miss the third and final Test of the ongoing series against South Africa at Sydney, Australian all-rounder Cameron Green is targetting to return for the tour of India in February 2023.

Green broke a bone in his finger after being struck by a rising Anrich Nortje delivery while batting late on the second day of the ongoing second Test against the Proteas and was forced to retire hurt. Scans have revealed that Green has a small fracture to his right index finger and Australia won't take any risks with the in-form 23-year-old ahead of a hectic upcoming schedule. That's the reason he has been pulled out of the Sydney Test.

Green did return to bat in Australia's first innings on Wednesday after the hosts lost four wickets for 45 runs in Wednesday's morning session and completed a courageous half-century that helped Australia eventually reach 575/8 declared in their first innings and give Australia an overall lead of 386.

Green, despite his fractured finger and it proved to be an ideal foil for Alex Carey (111), who reached his half-century in 66 balls as Australia added 93 runs in the session and their lead ticked towards 300.

Once Carey was eventually dismissed for 111 to Marco Jansen, Green showed his batting skill and hit a 170-ball half-century despite being ruled out of the next Test with a finger fracture sustained on Tuesday.

Though Green is set to miss the Sydney Test against South Africa and playing for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League, the 23-year-old is hopeful of being fit for the four-Test Border Gavaskar Trophy tour which gets underway in early February.

On Wednesday after the match, Green did not specify a precise return date but hopes next week's final Sydney Test is the only match he will miss.

"It obviously hurts not playing for Australia. I've played every game since I debuted so it's going to feel a bit weird watching Test cricket from home," said Green.

"But I'll be absolutely rapt for whoever comes in and hopefully takes their opportunity.

"It's a great environment to be a part of so I'm definitely going to miss it. I'm going to do as much as I can to get it right and try to go to India.

"A lot of people talk about the tour to India, how tough it is mentally and physically. It's going to be a massive tour for us. We're as best prepared as we're ever going to be, so (I'm) looking forward to it," he was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

Having retired hurt before stumps on Tuesday, Green bravely returned on Wednesday morning after Australia lost 4-45 in a frenetic half-hour.

"I was only going to go out there if we lost four or five wickets in the first session," he said. "If we'd lost all the wickets in the second session, I wasn't going to go out there at all."

He said initially it was difficult but he decided to go on despite the pain.

"You try to not show the pain straight away," the all-rounder was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au. "I marked my guard again and walked a couple of steps, and I was like 'I reckon my finger is out of place here'.

"I checked on it - it looked a little bit inverted is the only way I can explain it. It already had a big cut in it, then I got the bad news after the scan."