Melbourne, Dec 9 (UNI) Australia suffered a major setback on Tuesday with pacer Josh Hazlewood ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes series after a fresh injury blow derailed his recovery.
Hazlewood initially missed the first two Tests against England due to a hamstring injury sustained during the Sheffield Shield last month. However, a new Achilles-related issue last week has ended his hopes of returning this summer, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed.
“Unfortunately, Josh won’t be a part of the Ashes,” McDonald said. “Really, really flat for him. A couple of setbacks that we didn’t see coming, and we thought he would play a huge part in the series.”
“It’s a totally separate injury. It’s somewhere lower in the calf to the Achilles region. His preparation will then shift towards the World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us,” he added.
The right-arm quick will now shift focus towards regaining fitness for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, beginning February 7.
Australia, however, received a boost with skipper Pat Cummins expected to return for the third Test in Adelaide. McDonald said Cummins was “almost certain” to lead the side, having gone through extensive workload simulations at Allan Border Field while the team played in Brisbane.
“His body’s ready to go and barring anything else happening in the next week, I’d be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on,” McDonald said.
McDonald said Cummins was extremely close to featuring during the second Test at the Gabba, where the Aussies registered their second consecutive eight-wicket triumph over England for the series.
“There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat, and this is something we’ve done with Pat before, off long layoffs, where we’ve put some time and effort into rebuilding his body,” McDonald said.
“He was out at Allan Border Field, while everyone was out at the Gabba. So he simulated what a match will look like out there with multiple spells. So we feel as though he’ll be as well prepared as he can be.”
“He was well ahead of where we thought he’d be at. And it did create a real live conversation for Brisbane, the skill readiness, the loads, and how he was pulling up. It was debated a lot leading into that Test match. So with that in mind, us seeing him further advanced, we feel it’d be really well placed for the challenges of Adelaide, albeit a long way off. We feel as though the simulation in the nets has him skill-ready,” he said.
Australia currently leads the five-match Ashes series 2–0 after back-to-back eight-wicket wins in Perth and Brisbane.
Australia loses Hazlewood to injury as Cummins nears return
