2 months ago
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Josh Hazlewood is out of the Ashes series following confirmation of an Achilles issue in his recovery from a hamstring injury.
Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald declared Hazlewood will be out of the remainder of the series on Tuesday morning, after this masthead first reported the Achilles injury during the Gabba Test.
Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood training for NSW as they prepared for the Ashes series.Credit: Getty
“No I don’t think he’ll take part in the series now,” McDonald said. “You can go with that one. It’s a totally separate injury, it’s somewhere lower in the calf-to-Achilles region.
“He will be out of the series and his preparation will then shift towards the [T20] World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us, but unfortunately Josh won’t be a part of the Ashes and [we’re] really flat for him.
“[He had] a couple of setbacks we didn’t see coming. We thought he’d play a huge part in the series, but really feel for him that he won’t get that opportunity.”
McDonald also flagged that Pat Cummins will be back in the team as captain for the Adelaide Test next week, having completed a series of “match simulation” bowling spells at Allan Border Field while the Brisbane Test was playing out.
“Pat will be back in the squad, he will be available, and that creates a different balance to our attack,” McDonald said. “Barring anything else happening in the next week, we’ll be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on.
“There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat. This is something we’ve done with Pat before, off longish lay-offs, where we’ve put in some time to rebuilding his body. He was out at Allan Border Field while everyone else was at the Gabba, so he’s simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells.
“We feel as though he’ll be as best prepared as he can be. He was well ahead of where we thought he would be at, and it created a real live conversation for Brisbane. The skill readiness, the loads, how he was pulling up. It was debated a lot, leading into that Test match. So with that in mind, seeing him further advanced, we feel he’ll be really well-placed for the challenges of Adelaide.”
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Mitch Marsh, who has announced he will retire from first-class cricket at the end of the season, will remain a player of interest for Australia’s selector for a role in the Test side during this season - but not so much beyond that point.
“He’ll be available for Test selection [this season], yes,” McDonald said of Marsh. “I don’t want to put words in Mitch’s mouth, but if he’s retired from first-class cricket he would potentially look at Test cricket retirement also at the end of the season.”
More to come
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