The right-arm quick has been nursing an Achilles injury and took the first few days in India off to further assess the issue. The
Sydney Morning Herald reports that Hazelwood is only set to run in for Tuesday’s training in Nagpur, with the Test starting on Thursday.
“Just a bit of workload management at the moment, managing an Achilles niggle,” the 32-year-old told
SMH.com.
“I bowled a fair bit leading into the tour at home and pushing up against it. It probably wasn’t recovering as well as I’d have liked in sessions, so thought we’d give it a few days off the bat.
“Try to get over the hump, then have a bowl from Tuesday on and hopefully it goes well. Not sure about the first Test, it’s still a few days away, but it’s sneaking up pretty quickly. The second one’s obviously straight after as well, so we’ll play it by ear.”
All honours equal, the talented Scott Boland is in pole position to replace Hazlewood and operate with the ICC’s number one Test bowler, Pat Cummins. Of course, the seamer is backing his teammate, who’s averaging a ridiculous 12.21 with the ball, to fulfill the role.
“Scotty has bowled plenty at the MCG when it was a flat wicket, it probably wasn’t swinging or reverse swinging so he knows how to work hard for a long period of time,” continued Hazlewood.
“You’ve got Lance Morris who has worked hard on reverse swing for the last month and then a nice lead in here with a few sessions.
“The guys are excited first of all to play in the subcontinent, they both haven’t yet, but they’re very well qualified to do so. It was really good to play that Sydney Test beforehand just to focus in on what’s going to be important in this series. The wicket was obviously slow, it was dry, it was a bit abrasive, and we got reverse swing – great to have that coming into this tour.”
Reflecting on his injury woes, Hazelwood admitted it has been difficult to find a rhythm.
“It’s been frustrating playing one Test at a time,” he added.
“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.”
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