Spinner Matt Kuhnemann cleared of suspect bowling action

Despite the potentially serious ramifications for Kuhnemann, the tweaker and Australia team officials had been confident the tests would clear him.

Kuhnemann, 28, would have faced the difficult task of remodelling his action if he failed the ICC’s testing.

Players and team officials had been surprised to learn Kuhnemann was cited by match officials Joel Wilson and Adrian Holdstock. Holdstock officiated in the first Test but made no report after that game.

Kuhnemann had played 124 professional games since his debut in 2017 without incident, including five Tests, four one-day internationals and 55 Big Bash League games. West Indies umpire Wilson adjudicated in one of those Tests, the third Test of the 2023 series against India in Indore, without raising any queries.

The ICC deems an action to be illegal if “the player’s elbow extends by an amount of more than 15 degrees between their arm reaching the horizontal and the ball being released”.

Kuhnemann stamped himself as a key part of Australia’s bid to defeat India away from home in the 2027 series by topping the wicket-taker’s list with 16 at an average of 17.18 in Sri Lanka.

Indian spin great Ravichandran Ashwin said two years ago that Kuhnemann’s wrist work gave the perception his action was illegal.

“An interesting feature of his action is his loading,” Ashwin said on his YouTube channel during Kuhnemann’s debut Test series in 2023.

“For Kuhnemann, his wrist breaks during his loading. So sometimes it will look like there is an elbow extension. There is nothing like that in his action. But there is wrist involvement, for sure.”

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.