Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the first Ashes Test. A second scan on the hamstring injury he initially reported during the recent Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria found a low-grade tear.
The news came hours after England announced that scans on Mark Wood, whose own participation in the opening Test had been thrown into doubt when he reported stiffness in his left hamstring on the first day of their warm-up game against the Lions at Lilac Hill, had found no damage.
Hazlewood’s injury is a significant blow for an Australia side already dealing with the absence of their captain, Pat Cummins, because of lumbar bone stress. Only Mitchell Starc of their three frontline seamers remains available for selection when the series starts here on 21 November.
Sean Abbott, who was named in the Australia squad and injured his hamstring in the same Sheffield Shield game as Hazlewood, has also dropped out. Michael Neser was added to the first Test squad on Saturday as cover.
“Josh Hazlewood underwent repeat imaging today that has confirmed a hamstring strain injury,” Cricket Australia said. “Initial scans on Wednesday were clear of muscle strain. However follow-up imaging today has confirmed the injury.
“Early imaging can occasionally underestimate low-grade muscle injuries. As a result, Hazlewood will not travel to Perth and has been ruled out of the first Ashes Test match.”
Hazlewood, who turns 35 on the day the Ashes series is due to end, had lbeen in superb form in the recent white-ball series against India. But his fitness has been a cause of increasing concern and he missed three of the five Tests against India last year with a side strain. By the start of the second Ashes Test in Brisbane he will have sat out 43% of his country’s last 30 home Tests, dating back to the start of the 2019-20 season, with a variety of ailments.
England fans who went to bed on Friday fearing they would wake to news that one of their team’s key bowlers was out of the Ashes opener will instead find that their opponents are dealing with that disappointment instead, after Wood was cleared to return to training.
“Following precautionary scans on Friday, England fast bowler Mark Wood has been cleared of any concerns regarding his left hamstring,” the England & Wales Cricket Board said. “Wood will continue to train as planned in the buildup to the first Test in Perth.”
“He was fairly confident that it was going to be nothing serious, and he’s received that positive news, so he’s all up and about and full of energy at the moment,” said his teammate Brydon Carse. “He’s got a huge amount of resilience. If you look back at some of the setbacks he’s had over his career, to keep coming out and keep going through the processes to get back out on the field. It shows the sort of character he has.”
Wood’s fitness will come as a huge relief to an England camp that has identified express-pace bowling as their most likely route to success in the Ashes, carefully nursing the injury-prone quick as well as Jofra Archer through a succession of injuries and back to full fitness.
Carse, whose involvement in the first two days against the Lions was limited to facing three balls with the bat late on Friday after reporting stomach problems the previous morning, played a full part in the game’s conclusion, helping England to beat their understudies by five wickets.
The Lions return to Lilac Hill to face a Cricket Australia XI, a game that also starts on Friday. They will do so without Rehan Ahmed, who has been ruled out of the remainder of their tour of Australia because of a right lower leg strain and flew home on Saturday.
