Follow UsWith less than 10 days to go for the first Ashes Test in Perth, Australia suffered a major injury scare today with Josh Hazlewood going off the field due to hamstring tightness.
Hazlewood, who has had an injury-stricken last few years in Tests, and has broken down mid-series multiple times, bowled only nine overs in Victoria’s second innings before going off the field, and did not walk out to bat in the fourth innings as well as his New South Wales side slipped to a 300-run defeat at home.
For NSW captain Steve Smith, though, Ashes was always the priority, which is why it was he who instructed Hazlewood to ‘get off the field’ as soon as he got to know that the speedster’s hamstring was sore.
““[Hazlewood] literally bowled his last ball and I looked at him, I said, ‘How are you going?’,” Smith said, reported Sydney Morning Herald.
“He said [he was] ‘a bit tight in my hamstring’. And I was like, ‘Get off the field, disappear, you’re done, go and figure it out’.
“[Then] what do we do with Starc? Do we just put him on ice completely? And I was like, ‘Boland, you can bowl one spell and be done as well, that’ll be good’.”
Luckily for Australia and Hazlewood, the big right-armer has been cleared, and is, as things stand, good to go for the first Test in Perth on November 21.
However, the Kangaroos will be without the services of Sean Abbott, who injured his hamstring in the same clash and has been ruled out of the Perth encounter.
“Fortunately, it was just some tightness and [Hazlewood] is good,” Smith confirmed.
“But it’s rough for Sean, who’s obviously worked really hard the last few years to get in the position in the squad again.”
Australia are already without their captain Pat Cummins, who is recovering from a back issue, and so an injury to Hazlewood would seriously hamper them heading into the first game.
But Smith believes the strength in depth in the pace department is top notch, and insisted that the hosts have ‘enough options’.
“But we’ve got it [depth] there, don’t we?” he said.
“We’ve got Greeny, who bowled well from what I’ve heard in their game. And Slug [Webster], who took five as well. So nice to have the options there if we feel we need to go down that path at all.”
Smith himself, meanwhile, is in terrific form heading into the first Ashes Test. He’s batted thrice in the Shield this season, and his scores read 118, 57 & 56*. He will be captaining Australia in Perth in Cummins’ absence.