NEWS
Follow UsThe series is tied 1-1 at the moment with two Tests to go and Australia are sweating on a few fitness issues. While Josh Hazlewood is out of the Test series, there’s a considerable amount of concern if Travis Head will make it to MCG after the batter suffered some discomfort with a tight quad on the final day in Brisbane.
However, Australia skipper Pat Cummins ruled out that possibility, stating the No.5 batter will be fit for the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne, starting December 26. "Trav, he'll be fine; it's a bit of a tight quad; he'll be fine for Melbourne," Cummins said in the post-match presentation. "It's been a big couple of weeks. But I'll be fine."
Scott Boland, who has an incredible record in Melbourne, will be replacing Hazlewood for the fourth Test after the latter was ruled out of the series. The pacer’s recurring injury has become a concern for the Aussies in the last couple of years, but Cummins called it the nature of the job and empathized with his bowling colleague.
"It's really tough," Cummins said. "It's been the story, outside of last summer, of the last few summers. The extra layer to that [is] he's probably one of the most disciplined, professional sportspeople you could meet [with] the way he trains and prepares. When he's at home he's in the gym every second day or every day, doing whatever it takes to try and minimize injuries. Think that's an extra kind of blow, knowing how much he's put into his body in the last few years to try and play as many Tests as he can.
"It's one of those you can't really predict, but we value him. Unfortunately, he'll miss this series. I don't know exactly when he'll be right to go again, but even in the little snippets we've seen in this series, it shows how much we rate him and how much of an impact he can have."
After Hazlewood was ruled out of the Test, the bulk of the workload in the first innings came on the shoulders of Cummins and Mitchell Starc. That kind of load could be detrimental to a team’s long-term planning, but the skipper stated that both bowlers feel alright heading into the next Test.
"We are feeling really good. It was hot yesterday, but we'd had about seven days off bowling after Adelaide, so we were fresh, ready to go, and if anything, the rain breaks helped us get little breaks yesterday,” Cummins added.
"We went in thinking we'd need a lot more from Mitchy Marsh but felt like we got enough breaks so he wasn't needed as much. Also a bit of an eye to the second innings so when we had a fresh new ball, it would have landed on Mitchy a lot to try and take those ten wickets. I suspect we'll call on Mitch and some stage in the next couple of Tests to get us a breakthrough or two."
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