• Home
  • Cricket News
  • The Ashes Not Sure Of Fitness Josh Hazlewood Is Racing Against Time To Play Sydney Test

The Ashes | 'Not sure' of fitness, Josh Hazlewood is racing against time to play Sydney Test

Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood is still “not sure” of his chances to play the fourth Ashes Test and is racing against time to regain both full fitness and workload preparation for the New Year Test scheduled to be played in Sydney from January 03.

He said that he is likely to start bowling from the third day of the ongoing Boxing Day Test and will assess his bowling fitness after loading up a number of deliveries for the first time since the Gabba Test. 

He had suffered a rib injury during the first Test of the series in Brisbane and has missed both the second and third Tests to recover from the injury. He said that the nature and extent of the injury are completely new to him and he is taking small steps back to return on the field with the ball in hand.

“I’m still a little bit away, (this Test) is probably a week early,” Hazlewood told SEN. “We’re still not sure, we’re going to take this week as it comes and likely have a bowl on Day 3 or Day 5, see how that goes and then build up from there. The workloads are still there from the first Test, but obviously, I haven’t had a bowl in 10-12 days and we’ll see how it goes on Day 3.”

“It’s probably more on feel this one, it’s a bit of an interesting one, it’s the intercostal in between the ribs, there’s a slight tear. I’ve never had it before, I’ve had the normal oblique side strain, which is the common one, but we’re taking each day as it comes and we’ll make the decisions on basically how I feel.” 

Australia are already 2-0 up in the series and are also in a great position in the ongoing third series of the series and hence they would not be looking to rush Hazlewood’s return into the Test side.

Discover more
Top Stories
news

BBL 2021-22: Hughes, Christian power Sydney Sixers to easy win over Thunder in rain-curtailed contest

Sydney Sixers produced a match-winning performance against Sydney Thunder in a rain-curtailed match in Sydney. The game was reduced to 16 overs per side after rain played spoilsport and Sixers who batted first posted a good total of 168/4 in 16 overs on the board. Daniel Hughes hammered the opponents all around the park and notched up a 26-ball 50 which included five maximums and a four. Later, Christian chipped in with a brisk and unbeaten knock of 41 runs off 17 deliveries. Chris Green was the pick of the bowlers for his side after he returned with figures of 1/19 in 6 overs while Daniel Sams scalped a couple at the cost of 29 runs in 3 overs. In reply, the Thunder team lost wickets at regular intervals but Jason Sangha held the fort strong at one end before he departed for a 30-ball 47. The Sydney Thunder team couldn’t really get back into the groove despite a 28 off 11 from Sams. His innings consisted of four sixes during the course. Sydney Thunder were eventually bundled out for 142 in 15.1 overs. Hayden Karr bagged a three-wicket haul for his team while Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott and Lloyd Pope had two wickets each. Christian later talked about the bowling attack and how the rain helped the wicket to skid. “I was lukcy it came off tonight, the boys set a really good platform and the rain helped the wicket to skid on particularly towards the end. We bowled really well and everyone chipped in. It was a fantastic team effort. We got good depth and confidence in each other,” he said after the match.

news

SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 1: Mayank, Rahul provide India perfect start with 100-run opening stand

The opening duo of Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul did not let the men in blue miss Rohit Sharma and provided a perfect start to the Test series against South Africa in Centurion. The duo remained unbeaten till the end of the first session and stitched a valuable opening partnership of 82 runs in the first session of the game and series on the first Test of the series at SuperSport Park. Both the batsmen were very watchful around the off stump and did not play a lot of deliveries they could afford to leave. However, Mayank, in particular, was not defensive by any sort and punished the Proteas bowling attack whenever they erred in their line and lengths. The bowling attack comprising of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi provided a containing start to the Proteas but they bowled a bit too short and wide to the batsmen and allowed them the opportunity to leave balls outside their off stump. They were also guilty of not being able to adapt to the high bounce on the surface and allowed back of a length delivery which the batsmen left even on the line of stumps as they could trust the bounce. Mayank was more severe against the debutant Marco Jansen and welcomed him to Test cricket with three fours in his first over to seek command over the youngster. The left-armer bounced back quickly and created an opportunity by grabbing the outside edge of his bat but Quinton de Kock spilt the chance to give him a reprieve. The 82-run partnership is the first opening partnership of more than 50 runs since the opening partnership of 137 runs between Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag in the first Test of the 2010-11 Test series in the rainbow nation. India have had a long history of struggles at the top of the order in overseas conditions but the story has been remarkably different this year. They could not find an opening pair to stitch long partnerships in the entire decade starting the tour of England in 2011 but they have been able to deliver as many as seven fifty-plus opening partnerships in the longest format this year. They have had various personnel for the role considering the spells of injuries and indifferent form but almost all individuals have put their hands up. At first, it was the opening pair of Rohit and Shubman Gill in Australia and in the World Test Championship final and then it was the pair of Rohit and Rahul in England, followed by this pair of Rahul and Mayank in the ongoing Centurion Test.