In only two-and-a-half weeks, Matthew Kuhnemann has gone from being under an injury cloud to being under the spotlight as the Australian bowling attack's chief destroyer.
Kuhnemann (5-63) took a second Test 'five-fer' in Australia's first innings against Sri Lanka in Galle, showing no signs of the dislocated thumb he suffered playing Big Bash League in mid-January.
He backed the effort up with 4-86 in Sri Lanka's second innings as Australia rolled the hosts twice on Saturday's fourth day - for 165, then 247 - to seal victory by an innings and 242 runs.
Ahead of the first Test, stand-in captain Steve Smith said the team was "gobsmacked" Kuhnemann took only days to recover from surgery and earn a fourth Test cap.
"A lot of credit's got to go to the surgeon who did his thumb. He's a magician, not a surgeon," Smith said after the victory.
"He bowled beautifully this game. He ended up with nine wickets, it's a pretty good effort.".
The left-arm offspinner's heroics in the first innings allowed Australia to enforce the follow-on for only the sixth time since 2010 and continue to heap pressure on their hosts.
In his first over of the Test, Kuhnemann trapped Sri Lankan opener Oshada Fernando (7) lbw to help Australia pile pressure on the hosts late on day two.
The 28-year-old had a second wicket on a rain-affected third day, with captain Dhananjaya de Silva charging from the crease only to find himself stumped when he missed Kuhnemann's length ball.
Kuhnemann's third wicket of the innings was perhaps his most important.
The 28-year-old opened the floodgates when Kusal Mendis swept him straight to Todd Murphy at square leg early on day four.
Sri Lanka would go on to lose 5-9 in 26 balls as Kuhnemann snared two more wickets in the tail.
The Sri Lankans' first innings was officially over when Jeffrey Vandersay (4) hit Kuhnemann to Mitch Starc at cover.
The man of the hour kept his foot on the pedal for the second innings with the important wickets of Kamindu Mendis (34) and de Silva (39) after the middle-order men made starts.
Mendis, who scored five Test centuries last year, attempted to smack Kuhnemann down the ground into the wind but instead picked out Starc at deep midwicket.
Just as de Silva had his eye in, the captain was caught by Beau Webster at cover to fall to Kuhnemann for the second time in the match.
"Left-arm spinners, in particular (bowling) to the right-hand batters, it just works in the subcontinent," Smith said.
"We've seen plenty of spinners from India, (Ravindra) Jadeja, Axar Patel, guys like that.
"Guys that can take the ball away from the bat and present the threats of skin and spin and just bowl consistent balls, it's very dangerous."
