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Australia’s worries continue as fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India, starting from February 9 in Nagpur, due to a left Achilles niggle.
The 32-year-old Hazlewood now joins his pace bowling partner Mitchell Starc, who is sure to miss the first Test with a finger complaint and all-rounder Cameron Green, who is unlikely to bowl due to an injured finger in Australia’s injury list.
With this injury, pacer Scott Boland is a strong contender to play his first Test abroad after playing all of his six Tests in Australia, with uncapped speedster Lance Morris also an option.
It will be interesting to see whether Hazlewood regains his full fitness before the start of the second Test in New Delhi from February 17, with a short three-day gap between the first two Tests.
Hazlewood, who has missed time with side strains over the past two home Test summers, said soggy patches in the outfield of the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) due to rain where bowlers jumped from in the Test against the Proteas had aggravated his latest injury.
🚨 JUST IN: Australia dealt with a massive injury blow ahead of the first #INDvAUS Test!
Details 👇 https://t.co/Qgvr9iKTCo
— ICC (@ICC) February 5, 2023
“It’s still lingering from the (Sydney) Test match,” Hazlewood said of his injury on Sunday.
“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 (back from injury) your body is not used to that sort of workload as well.”
The right-arm pacer has not bowled during any of the sessions held in Alur on the outskirts of Bangalore and said that he will only resume bowling two days before the Nagpur Test. In his absence, Boland and Aussie skipper Pat Cummins took the new ball during match-simulation drills on Sunday, the final day of Australia’s training camp before they fly to Nagpur.
“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 of the bat and try and get over the hump and have a bowl from Tuesday and hope it goes well.”
Since his debut in the Boxing Day Test in the Ashes at the MCG, the 33-year-old Boland has played six Tests for Australia and has picked 28 wickets at an average of 12.21. All of those Tests have come at home and he will be hoping to play his first Test outside of his country in India.
“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,” added Hazlewood.
Australia will finish their preparatory camp ahead of the series against India at Alur, on Sunday. They will then fly to Nagpur on Monday ahead of the first Test starting from Thursday.
India are the current holder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and have won each of the last three Test series played between the two sides: at home in 2016-17, and away in 2018-19 and 2020-21.
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