Josh Hazlewood will miss the second Ashes Test in Brisbane but he will have a role to play later in the Ashes series while Pat Cummins is closing in on a return at the Gabba next week.
Hazlewood was ruled out of the opening Test in Perth after picking up a hamstring problem in a Sheffield Shield match. The fast bowler is expected to join the squad in Brisbane to continue his rehab.
“He’s working through the first week of his rehab,” coach Andrew McDonald said. “I’m not sure that we need to give an update on that. Once he gets further down the track and (we) have some rough timelines, then we’ll be in a position to communicate that.
“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series. We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.”
The Aussie coach was positive on Pat Cummins.
“Once we see him again we’ll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like,” McDonald said. “But for those who saw him in Perth, I did say this a while back that he’ll be up and bowling…and people will be sitting there questioning why he’s not playing.
“It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation. The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. There’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much. But it will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test. That may be one that eventuates late for us. A little bit to work through but it’s nearing completion, which is really, really positive.”
Pink-ball practice
Only three from England’s Ashes squad will join the Lions to play in the Prime Minster’s XI fixture in Canberra, with only Jacob Bethell, Matthew Potts and Josh Tongue cleared for the two-day match which begins on Saturday.
The trio didn’t play the first Test in Perth.
The day-night fixture in Canberra would have given them invaluable experience ahead of the the pink-ball Test at the Gabba, which begins on December 4. The decision has already invited criticism.
“It’s amateurish if they don’t go and play now,” Michael Vaughan, England’s 2005 Ashes-winning captain, said. “What harm is playing two days of cricket with a pink ball under lights?
“It’s not being old-school to suggest that a pink ball is different to a red ball. Playing under the lights is different. Australia have won pretty much every pink-ball game in Australia: they’ve lost once. I’m not too old-school to suggest that they should play in that game… I’d like to know why they wouldn’t.”
The squad will travel from Perth to Brisbane on Wednesday and begin practice.