The choice that the Australian selectors will likely be debating the most before Headingley, where the Ashes may be won, is whether to ask Josh Hazlewood to play in three straight Tests despite the hazards.
However, when Josh Hazlewood played at Lord’s, it marked the first time he had played consecutive Tests since 2020–21 due to a string of injuries. Todd Murphy’s selection to replace the injured Nathan Lyon is all but assured.
To make sure he was prepared for the Ashes, he was benched from the World Test Championship final against India. Since then, he has bowled 56 overs in two Tests, taking eight wickets and posting an economy rate of 4.64.
With the third Test starting just three days after Lord’s, the workload is not excessive, but it may cause the selectors to second-guess their decision.
“He’d be the obvious one you’d be a bit more careful of,” captain Pat Cummins said. “The tour so far for him has gone as well as he could have hoped – no injuries, but he is kind of uncharted territory for the last year or two.
“I think there will be some conversation around that. I think he bowled 25 and 35 [25 and 31], which isn’t extreme numbers, but again you weigh up this game versus the last two, how he’s tracking so we’ll work through that.
“It’s a quick turnaround,”
he added.
“It’s obviously a huge match, but there are three matches to come. So you don’t want to put anyone at higher risk than you’d like knowing that there’s a couple of fresh guys on the bench that come straight in.”
The two remaining Tests at Old Trafford and The Oval would still carry significant WTC points with this series being the first in the new cycle when Australia is the reigning champion. While the major reward of reclaiming the Ashes with a series victory can be attained at Headingley, the two remaining Tests at Old Trafford and The Oval would still carry vital WTC points.
Michael Neser, who has been kept on the roster, would most likely be replaced by Scott Boland if Hazlewood were to sit out this game. At Edgbaston, where Scott Boland played the first Test, England took him for over a run every ball, but Cummins had no concerns about Boland’s return.
“We have such high standards of him [Boland] because of how well he has bowled,”
Cummins said.
“You saw in that little stretch where conditions were in our favour, how damaging he could be.”
Warner discussed the challenges he was having with his wounded fingers during the Lord’s Test, but Cummins was unaware of the issue and Warner scored on Tuesday.
“I saw him icing them at one stage in the changeroom and then him talking about it was the only time I’d heard of it,”
he said.
“So I don’t think it’s an issue.”
After winning the WTC, victory at Headingley would strengthen the legacy of this Australian Test team by marking the first away Ashes series victory since 2001. Although he acknowledged there were conflicting emotions, Cummins was a key player in the 2019 series that ended in a drawn 2-2 tie and led to the urn’s retention.
“I think everyone felt a bit differently about it,” he said.
he said.
“In Manchester, when we won that Test match to retain it, there was a big celebration where some people, me included, kind of thought, ‘do you celebrate when you retain it’. I genuinely didn’t know. For me it’s always about winning a series outright so that’s the goal. We want to win one of these last three Test matches.”