The visiting Australian team will be without the services of their star fast bowler Josh Hazlewood, who has been ruled out of the opening Test match against India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting on February 9 in Nagpur. The right-arm fast bowler is suffering with an Achilles niggle in his left leg and is also believed to be doubtful for the second test.
The star left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc already unavailable for the opening of the match and now ruled out, right-arm fast bowler Scott Boland is all set to share the new ball with Australia captain Pat Cummins in the opening Test at Nagpur.
It must also be remembered that Australia will not be able to avail the services of all-rounder Cameron Green as a bowler since he has not fully recovered from the finger injury that he suffered during the home series against South Africa in December.
The latest injury to Josh Hazlewood adds to his List of Test matches missed for Australia in recent times, as he had played only four red-ball matches in the last two years.
In November last year, he had injured his side during the first Test against the West Indies which kept him out of the second Test of that series and also from the first two Test matches against South Africa. He then returned for the third and final Test against South Africa in Sydney in January where he picked up the niggle, which eventually ruled out of the first of the four Tests against India.
Josh Hazlewood told media that the niggle was caused partly due to damp run-ups at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) during the third and final Test against South Africa, and he did not bowl a lot during Australia’s training camp in Bangalore. Josh Hazlewood said that he will be resuming bowling two days before the start of the Nagpur Test.
Josh Hazlewood told the media,
“It’s [the injury] still lingering from the [Sydney] Test match]. We obviously bowled after a lot of rain and the jump-offs were quite soft, where we were taking off from and they ended up replacing them as well.
“It sort of worked to a degree, but just that extra load jumping off a soft ground to bowl and again first Test match your body is not used to that sort of workload as well. I was bowling a fair bit leading into the [India] tour at home and sort of just pushing up against it. It probably wasn’t recovering as well as I would have liked between each session. So thought we’d give it a few days here straight off the bat and try and get over the hump and have a bowl from Tuesday and hope it goes well,”
Adding that Scott Boland, who has had a terrific start to his Test career, is primed for a good show against India, Josh Hazlewood said,
“Scotty has bowled plenty at the MCG when it was a flat wicket, it probably wasn’t swinging or reverse swinging so he knows how to work hard for a long period of time,”
“You’ve got Lance Morris who has worked hard on reverse swing for the last month and then a nice lead in here with a few sessions. The guys are excited first of all to play in the subcontinent, they both haven’t yet, but they’re very well qualified to do so.”