Josh Hazlewood out of Adelaide Test with injury

Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the second Test – a pink-ball, day-night fixture – against India in Adelaide from December 6, due to a ‘low grade left side injury’, Cricket Australia said. This will be Hazlewood’s first absence from a home Test against India. With this, for the first time since the Sydney Test of 2015, Australia will be without one of the four stalwarts – Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon – in a home BGT match. The quartet featured together in nine successive home Tests vs India.

Uncapped pacers Sean Abbott and Brendan Doggett have been added to the home team’s squad. Australia though, are likely to fill the Hazlewood void with the inclusion of Scott Boland, who was part of the original squad picked. Boland will be in action during the two-day warm-up game for the Prime Ministers XI, starting on November 30. His last Test appearance came in the Ashes Test in Leeds in 2023.

Hazlewood will be a significant miss for the hosts who are trailing the five-match series 0-1. The pacer bowled a devastating spell against India the last time they played in Adelaide in December 2021, which was also a pink-ball, day-night game. In India’s abysmal 36 for 9, he walked away with figures of 5 for 8 in 5 overs, including three maidens. Hazlewood also made a good start to the current series in Perth, picking 4 for 29 in the first innings where India were bundled out for 150. In the second too, where India piled on the runs, he gave away just 28 runs in 21 overs.

Both Abbott and Doggett arrive on the back of impressive performances in the Sheffield Shield. Abbott, who has been on the fringes of the Test squad for a while, picked 4 for 71 in 16 overs against Tasmania at the SCG in the last round of the Sheffield Shield, and comes with 261 first-class wickets to his name. Doggett meanwhile, bagged a five-fer against Western Australia recently, to take his tally of wickets up to 11 in three Shield fixtures. He also turned heads with his career-best returns of 6 for 15 in the A game against India A in McKay in the lead-up to this Test series.

Both the uncapped pacers were previously picked in the Test squad without getting a game – Doggett during the series against Pakistan in UAE in 2018, and Abbott during the 2020-21 home series against India, while also being in the squad as a reserve in last year’s Ashes.