Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood out of India series; might miss IPL 2023 as well

Australia seamer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the final two Tests of the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to Achilles tendonitis. He missed the first two Tests of the four-match series because of the same injury.

Australian head coach Andrew McDonald, on Monday, confirmed that Hazlewood would return home to continue his rehab.

In addition, the right-arm pacer is also likely to miss the entire season of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023.

Australia are scheduled to visit England later this year for The Ashes. The World Test Championship (WTC) final will also immediately follow IPL 2023. As per the media reports, Hazlewood might give the IPL a miss to focus on international fixtures.

In the 2022 edition of IPL, Hazlewood was the second-highest wicket-taker for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), and finished his campaign with 20 wickets from 12 matches at an economy rate of 8.1. His impact on the fabric of the Faf du Plessis-led side was absolutely titanic.

Cameron Green expected to be fit for last two Tests

McDonald also revealed that Cameron Green is expected to be 100 percent fit for the final two Test matches in Indore and Ahmedabad, having come very close to playing in Delhi. He wasn’t picked in the playing XI because doubts remained whether his broken finger had recovered or not.

“He was close,” McDonald was quoted as saying in ESPNcricinfo. “It’s building the confidence. He had the setback in Bangalore, a little setback batting in Bangalore where he had some jarring and there was a fair bit of discomfort in that finger. If he didn’t have that, I think the second Test was real. But it probably just delayed it those few days. And we contemplated him as a concussion sub as well. So that was another discussion. But we felt like if he wasn’t right to go at the start then what was a couple of days. We’re better off loading up for the third Test match and in a good frame of mind.”

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February 20, 2023 at 04:39PM