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Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood will be flying home and has been ruled out of the remaining two Tests of the Border-Gavaskar series against India due to his injury.
Hazlewood missed the first two Tests against India due to Achilles tendonitis. He was then replaced by another Australian pacer Scott Boland for the first Test in Nagpur.
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed on Monday that Hazlewood is flying home to continue his rehabilitation from an Achilles complaint.
“Josh Hazlewood out, he’ll be going home,” McDonald said on Monday.
McDonald also mentioned that opener David Warner will be monitored closely over the next few days and the decision to play him in the next two Tests will be only taken by the medical staff.
“He’s [Warner] still sore at the moment. We had a meeting just before discussing through this. We’re in no rush to make any decisions at this point in time around Davey. Just seeing how that settles, how functional that is.
“It will be basically how sore and how functional it is as to what decision we make with him and then the length of the injury. There’s some talk the length of injury could be anywhere between a week plus depending how that settles down. There’s a bit of unknown there. I’ll leave that to the medical team and they’ll inform me once they know.”
Since there are nine days before the start of the third test in Indore, there are fewer concerns in the Australian team about his concussion as Warner will have enough time to recover from it and pass the mandatory protocols.
However, if Warner doesn’t get fully recovered from his elbow injury, then left-hander Travis Head is likely to continue as an opener, given he has proved himself by scoring an impressive 42 in the second innings in Delhi. If Warner is fit for the third Test, then Australia’s selectors will have some tough decisions to make to get the right combination.
In the absence of Warner, McDonald feels Head is a better opening choice for Australia in the subcontinent conditions as he plays with an intent to score runs and can get his side to a quick start.
“If Dave’s unavailable it would make perfect sense,” McDonald said. “We did discuss before coming over here that if we were to lose an opening batter that Trav would be one we’d look to put up there. We feel in the subcontinental conditions that he can get off to the fast starts which he showed.
“We don’t see [Head] as an opener in all conditions, more subcontinental and in other conditions back to the middle order,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, Australia skipper Pat Cummins flew back to Sydney due to family health reasons. However, he is expected to return ahead of the third Test of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series in Indore.
Meanwhile, all-rounder Cameron Green is expected to be 100 per cent fit for the third Test after coming very close to playing the second Test in Delhi.
“He [Green] was close,” McDonald said. “It’s building the confidence. He had the setback in Bangalore, a little setback batting in Bangalore where he had some jarring and there was a fair bit of discomfort in that finger. If he didn’t have that, I think the second Test was real.
“But it probably just delayed it those few days. And we contemplated him as a concussion sub as well. So that was another discussion. But we felt like if he wasn’t right to go at the start then what was a couple of days. We’re better off loading up for the third Test match and in a good frame of mind.”
Left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc on the other hand is also expected to be fit and is in consideration for a place in the XI for the third Test. Starc’s lower-order batting is also a plus point for him as McDonald revealed that India’s lower-order batting has been the difference in the series so far.
Off-spinner Todd Murphy, who took a brilliant 7/124 on his debut, is also carrying a side niggle. However, McDonald is quite confident that he would be fully fit before the start of the third Test, considering there is a nine-day break before the Test match starts.
McDonald also confirmed that there are chances that Australia might send one or two players back home to play domestic cricket with first-choice players Green and Starc getting fit to play.
“We’re working through that. It won’t be form as such but there’s cricket going on back home and with a few players now becoming fit and available, are we carrying too many? That’s probably a question,” McDonald said.
“So we’ve got to be clear on what we want to achieve in the next two Test matches in terms of the structure of the team. Once we get our heads around that, there’s an opportunity for players to be playing cricket back home and we value that.”
Meanwhile, off-spin all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has made his return on Monday for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield after getting recovered from his injury.
When asked whether Australia is thinking to bring Maxwell back into the Test squad, McDonald said, “He’s played one game. What did he get, 5? He played club cricket and got 61. We’ll see how we go. We’ve got the one-day squad that we’ll announce, if he gets through everything that he needs to then he’ll be a starter for that one-day series. Anything forward of that will be discussed,” he concluded.
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