Hazlewood absence confirmed for Gabba as Cummins pushes on as McDonald expects former able to play a part during the series.
Hazlewood set to miss Brisbane, Cummins pushes hard for return.
Josh Hazlewood is expected to miss the second Test match against England in Brisbane, but there is hope that he will be ready to contribute later in the Ashes series. Meanwhile, Pat Cummins is getting closer to making a comeback at the Gabba next week.
After suffering a hamstring injury in the Sheffield Shield, Hazlewood was disqualified from the first Test in Perth. An initial scan did not reveal the issue. Coach Andrew McDonald anticipates his availability later in the series, and it is anticipated that he will join the team in Brisbane to continue his rehabilitation.
“He’s working through the first week of his rehab,” McDonald said. “I’m not sure that we need to give an update on that. Once he gets further down the track and [we] have some rough timelines, then we’ll be in a position to communicate that.
“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series. We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.”
Cummins had trained well in the run-up to the first Test, but the quick two-day conclusion of the first Test prompted a small adjustment to his bowling program. After returning home to Sydney, he was supposed to bowl on Monday, the fourth day of the Test, but that has been rescheduled by one day.
Even though McDonald stated it might be too late to decide whether or not he plays the day-night Test in Brisbane, the signals are still positive for Australia’s captain. There would be an eight-day gap before the third Test in Adelaide assuming Cummins returned and the second Test lasted the full five days, which is unlikely if Perth is any indication.
“Once we see him again we’ll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like,” McDonald said. “But for those who saw him in Perth, I did say this a while back that he’ll be up and bowling…and people will be sitting there questioning why he’s not playing.
“It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation. The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. There’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much.
“But it will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match. That may be one that eventuates late for us. A little bit to work through but it’s nearing completion, which is really, really positive.”