Josh Hazlewood is almost certainly out of the first Test against India, leaving Scott Boland in line to play alongside Pat Cummins as the pace component of Australia’s attack in the Border-Gavaskar opener.
An Achilles problem has been troubling Hazlewood in the lead-up to the first Test, and after failing to shake it, the 32-year-old is not going to try to bowl again until Australia’s main session in Nagpur on Tuesday ahead of the Thursday start.
Australia’s Josh Hazlewood appeals for a wicket.Credit:AP
But he admitted that this timeline made the first Test extremely unlikely, and the second match in Delhi also doubtful due to its scheduling close on the heels of the first match.
“Just a bit of workload management at the moment, managing an Achilles niggle,” Hazlewood said in Bengaluru. “I bowled a fair bit leading into the tour at home and pushing up against it. It probably wasn’t recovering as well as I’d have liked in sessions, so thought we’d give it a few days off the bat.
“Try to get over the hump, then have a bowl from Tuesday on and hopefully it goes well. Not sure about the first Test, it’s still a few days away, but it’s sneaking up pretty quickly. The second one’s obviously straight after as well, so we’ll play it by ear.”
It’s been a highly frustrating period for Hazlewood, who has played only four Tests since January 2021 with an assortment of side, hamstring and foot problems.
He had only returned to the side for the SCG Test against South Africa in early January, where Hazlewood said Sydney’s rain interruptions and consequent effect on the bowlers’ run-ups may have contributed to the issue.
“It’s still lingering from the Test match probably,” he said. “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.”
“It’s been frustrating playing one Test at a time. It always feels the hardest Test to play, the first one, and they sort of get easier as they go and you get to the other side, the end of the series, it gets hard again. Hopefully I can string a couple together on this tour.”
In addition to Hazlewood, the Australians are also awaiting the recoveries of the all-rounder Cameron Green from a broken finger, while Mitchell Starc is yet to join the touring party after a finger tendon injury and is expected to figure in selection talk for the Delhi Test.
Hazlewood took solace from the fact the series is played over four Tests with a sizeable gap between the second in Delhi and third in Dharamshala, affording him time to work his way into calculations.
“It’s not a two-Test series where you might push things to get up for it,” he said. “Four Tests is a long time and the Ashes is there as well and there’s cricket all the time. It’s just about getting it right, you don’t want it lingering around for months on end.
“The Achilles is a hard one, being a tendon it’s couple of steps forward, one step back occasionally, which is how it goes for everyone when they’ve got this type of injury. Feels like it’s heading in the right direction.”
As for Boland, the outstanding candidate to play alongside Cummins with Hazlewood and Starc both in varying stages of recovery, the Victorian’s skills may well be useful in India, where hitting the pads and the stumps is often more frequent that coaxing edges.
“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,” Hazlewood said. “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. It was really good to play that Sydney Test beforehand just to focus in on what’s going to be important in this series. The wicket was obviously slow, it was dry, it was a bit abrasive, and we got reverse swing – great to have that coming into this tour.”
