Josh Hazlewood to miss the opening Test against India

As the mercury levels have started rising in the Indian and Aussie camps with the Border-Gavaskar series fast approaching, Australia have suffered a major injury blow as one of their pace mainstays, RCB’s ace quick, Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the opening test with an injury.

As reported by Cricket.com.au, Hazlewood confirmed a niggle on his left Achilles tendon that was caused due to dampened run-ups at the SCG for last month’s Test against South Africa. His absence from the opening fixture means that this will be paving the path for the wrecker-in-chief of England in the precursor edition of the Ashes, Scott Boland.

The shortened time gap that only has three days separating the first two fixtures means that Hazlewood will have to pace up his recuperation and will be racing against time to get himself up and running before Australia could announce him fit for the second fixture.

Talking about a probable incoming Boland as reported by Cricket Australia, Hazlewood said, “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.”

Australia already have an injury scare bolting two of their pacers with Mitchell Starc likely to miss out the opening fixture due to a finger injury and Cameron Green already nursing a broken finger. The latter may be seen batting and fielding but as reported by Cricket Australia, he won’t be bowling till the second fixture.

Hazlewood also shed some light on the much-talked about ‘Wild Thing’, Lance Morris, adding, “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."