What comes as a major setback for the Australian Cricket Team, speedster Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the first Test of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 as he is yet to recover from an Achilles injury on his left leg. Hazlewood is also unlikely to appear in the second Test.
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According to fresh reports, Hazlewood has not taken an active part in Australia’s pre-series camp in Alur and has only assisted his teammates with their training. Hazlewood was regarded as a very instrumental cog in the Australian team, he is most likely to be out of the first two Tests. Australia is already without Mitchell Starc for the early part of the series.
"Not sure about the first Test. It’s still a few days away but it's sneaking up pretty quickly. The second one is obviously straight after as well. So, we will play it by ear over the next few weeks and the next few days and hopefully, Tuesday goes well,” Hazlewood was quoted saying by Cricbuzz ahead of Australia’s final session at the KSCA Stadium, in the outskirts of Bangalore on Sunday.
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“Just a bit of workload management at the moment. Just managing the Achilles. I was bowling a fair bit leading into the tour at home and sort of just pushing up against it. Probably, was not recovering as well as I would have liked between each session so thought we had given it a few days here straight of the bat and try and get over the hump and have a bowl from Tuesday on (in Nagpur) and hope it goes well," Hazlewood added.
The talented speedster also admitted that it's pretty frustrating to play one Test at a time and then miss the entire series.
“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,” Hazlewood said.
Meanwhile, the Aussie also commented on his proliferation of the T20 league by setting his priority straight. "As fun as T20 is and as lucrative as it is, I find it still plays second fiddle to Test cricket. This series, the Ashes series, home summers are what you play cricket for. I don't think that will ever change," he said.
