By Shivani P Menon
Australia’s key bowler, Josh Hazlewood, has been side-lined with an injury and will miss the remainder of the Ashes series, Australian head coach Andrew McDonald said on Tuesday.
When playing in Australia’s domestic Sheffield Shield competition last month, Hazlewood injured his hamstring. He missed the first 2 matches of the Ashes against England. And just last week, he again hurt his Achilles, with the head coach saying that he will now focus on recovering in time for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which begins on February 7.
The head coach described this as a very disappointing situation, as they all wished that Hazlewood would play a major role in the Ashes. He also said that their main focus right now is on his recovery by the World Cup time, as it is a very important competition for them.
Since Australia’s Caribbean Tour, Hazlewood has barely played any games and was expected to play a significant role in their Ashes plan. The positive for Australia is the return of Pat Cummins, who is expected to step straight back as a captain and lead the attack in Adelaide after missing time with a lower-back problem. Although Cummins hasn’t played since July, McDonald feels his training build-up has been as close to match conditions as possible.
McDonald added that Cummins was ahead of schedule, which sparked serious discussions about whether he could feature in Brisbane. Given how far along he was, the staff now feels that he is well placed to handle the challenges in Adelaide, despite the long layoff, and that the net simulations have him ready for a skills perspective.