IND vs AUS: Josh Hazlewood out of Nagpur Test due to injury, Scott Boland likely to replace him in XI

Just before the start of the 2023 Border-Gavaskar series, Aussie seamer Josh Hazlewood is ruled out of the first Test in Nagpur due to an Achilles niggle in his left leg. The injury could also see him miss the following match in Delhi as well. In absence of Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green, both of who suffered finger injuries during the South Africa series at home, Josh’s unavailability comes as a huge blow for the visiting team. Scott Boland, who emerged on the Test scene during last home Ashes is likely to replace Hazlewood in the playing XI for the first Test, scheduled to begin on February 9th.

Hazlewood has been struggling with injuries lately having played just four matches in the past two years. While his side injury ruled him out of the Windies’ Tests last year, he missed the following first two Tests against South Africa due to the same reason too. Returned for the final Test of the series at the SCG, Hazlewood then picked up the niggle that has now kept him out of contention for the first two India Tests.

As per the fast bowler he sustained this injury mainly due to the damp run-ups at the SCG during the final Proteas Test. The fast bowler added that he didn’t bowl much during Australia’s training camp near Bengaluru and would only resume bowling a couple of days before start of the Nagpur Test.

“It’s [the injury] still lingering from the [Sydney] Test match,” Hazlewood said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. “We obviously bowled after a lot of rain and the jump-offs were quite soft, where we were taking off from and they ended up replacing them as well.

“It sort of worked to a degree, but just that extra load jumping off a soft ground to bowl and again first Test match your body is not used to that sort of workload as well. I was bowling a fair bit leading into the [India] tour at home and sort of just pushing up against it. It probably wasn’t recovering as well as I would have liked between each session.

“So thought we’d give it a few days here straight off the bat and try and get over the hump and have a bowl from Tuesday and hope it goes well,” the fast bowler added.

Having the backups in Boland and lesser-known Lance Morris, Australia is likely to pair Scott with Pat Cummins for the first Test while Nathan Lyon and either of Ashton Agar or Mitchell Swepson will be picked as spinners.