After a run of ten consecutive Tests from Old Trafford in last year’s Ashes to the first match of this series, this is a return to the pattern that interrupted Hazlewood’s career between 2021 and 2023, where he played just four Tests in two years . period.
“With Hazlewood, he’s getting injured more and more, so that would be a real concern,” Finch told ESPN. Around the gate. “I think there’s an opportunity to maybe even pick the games he plays in the future. “Everyone knows he’s in Australia’s top three bowlers, or top four adding Nathan Lyon, but you need him in the game. park… [So, Australia might have to consider] pick the best conditions for Josh Hazlewood to have an impact and rotate the rest around that.”
“We answer the same question every year: if you’re fit, you play and if you’re not fit, you don’t. It’s as simple as that, no one rests in a Test match,” Hazlewood said ahead of the series.
“We don’t want them to play less cricket, we want them to play more and I think a rotation policy might be the best way forward here because those quick five or sixes are really good and up to the task, so trying to lengthen their careers and rotate might be the best way forward.”
Meanwhile, Cummins was confident he and Mitchell Starc could back up in Melbourne and Sydney with regular rain breaks in Brisbane, having made up for the additional workload in Hazlewood’s absence.
“Nothing is certain, we will see how we recover. But today we are fine and I can’t imagine that changing,” Cummins said. “We felt very good, it was hot [Tuesday] but we’d had about seven days off bowling after Adelaide, so we were fresh and ready to go.”
Hazlewood’s next opportunity to play Tests could come in Sri Lanka at the end of January, although that may depend on whether Cummins misses one or both matches due to the birth of his second child, because it is highly unlikely that Australia will field more than two rapids in Galle.
Assistant coach Daniel Vettori admitted Hazlewood was “disheartened” after the latest setback and spoke of his frustrations as he flew back to Sydney on Thursday.
“I ticked all the boxes going into the test, I can understand if it’s my side again and it’s a little messed up, but it’s just a random calf strain,” Hazlewood said. channel 7 at Adelaide airport. “Obviously [we’ll] Dig into it and see what we can come up with, but it feels like a pretty random injury.
“I’ve had a bit of history with sides and calves, they’re probably the two things that have kept me out for most of the last four years, but [can] Hopefully continue to add another layer to the defense. “I’ve ticked a lot of boxes over the last 12 months and again it’s just timing – it’s just little two or three week injuries, it’s just timing and missing big games so that’s probably the most frustrating thing.”
