The Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the Ashes 2025-26 after developing an Achilles injury during his recovery from a hamstring injury.
The Australian head coach, Andrew McDonald, has confirmed that Josh Hazlewood will be out of the remainder of the series on Tuesday morning ahead of Adelaide.
“No, I don’t think he’ll take part in the series now,” McDonald said. “You can go with that one. It’s a totally separate injury, it’s somewhere lower in the calf to the Achilles region.
“He will be out of the series, and his preparation will then shift towards the (T20) World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us, but unfortunately Josh Hazlewood won’t be a part of the Ashes and (we’re) really flat for him.”
“(He had) a couple of setbacks we didn’t see coming. We thought he’d play a huge part in the series, but we really feel for him that he won’t get that opportunity.”
Meanwhile, Pat Cummins will be back in the team as captain for the Adelaide Test next week, having completed a series of ‘match simulation’ bowling spells at Allan Border Field during the Brisbane Heat.
“Pat will be back in the squad, he will be available, and that creates a different balance to our attack,” McDonald said. “Barring anything else happening in the next week, we’ll be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on.”
“There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat. This is something we’ve done with Pat before, off longish lay-offs, where we’ve put in some time to rebuilding his body.”
“He was out at Allan Border Field while everyone else was at the Gabba, so he’s simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells,” Andrew McDonald added.
“We feel as though he’ll be as well prepared as he can be. He was well ahead of where we thought he would be at, and it created a real-life conversation for Brisbane. The skill readiness, the loads, how he was pulling up,” further added McDonald.
“It was debated a lot, leading into that Test match. So with that in mind, seeing him further advanced, we feel he’ll be really well-placed for the challenges of Adelaide.”
Australian players have been headlines of the news this week. Earlier, Mitchell Marsh confirmed that he will retire from first-class cricket at the end of the season.
He also confirmed that he will be open to playing Australia’s selector for a role in the test side during this season.
“He’ll be available for Test selection (this season), yes,” said Andrew McDonald about Mitchell Marsh.
“I don’t want to put words in Mitch’s mouth, but if he’s retired from first-class cricket, he would potentially look at Test cricket retirement also at the end of the season.”
Leading the series 2-0, Australia will be aiming to seal the series during the third test, which will be played between December 17 and 21 on Adelaide OvalNorth Adelaide.
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