Both England and Australia have been dealt massive blows to their pace attacks ahead of the third Test of the ongoing Ashes, after frontline quicks Josh Hazlewood and Mark Wood were ruled out for the remainder of the five-match series.
Wood will be missing the next three games in the ICC World Test Championship series due to a recurring left-knee injury. A statement from the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that Wood will return home later this week and will work closely with the ECB medical team on his rehabilitation and recovery.
Wood has had recent troubles with his left knee, having sustained the injury earlier this year during the ICC Champions Trophy. The right-arm quick, who has since had a surgery, had reported pain in his knee during the series opener against Australia in Perth and was only able to bowl 11 overs during the Test. He missed out on featuring in England’s lineup for the second Test in Brisbane as the hosts took a 2-0 lead in the five-Test series.
“Gutted to be out for the remainder of the Ashes. After extensive surgery and 7 long, hard months of work and rehab to get back into the Test arena, my knee just hasn’t held up,” Wood said on social media.
In his stead, Surrey seamer Matthew Fisher has been added to the senior squad and will link up with the group this week, having been in Australia with the Lions.
Meanwhile, Hazlewood hurt his hamstring when featuring in Australia’s domestic Sheffield Shield competition last month and missed the first two matches of the Ashes against England as the Aussies opened up a 2-0 series lead.
The right-armer then suffered a further setback last week when he hurt his Achilles, with Australia coach Andrew McDonald revealing on Tuesday that the pacer would miss the entire Test summer and will now instead focus on recovering in time for the ICC men’s T20 World Cup that commences February 7 in India and Sri Lanka.
“Unfortunately, Josh won’t be a part of the Ashes. Really, really flat for him. A couple of setbacks that we didn’t see coming, and we thought he would play a huge part in the series,” McDonald said.
“It’s a totally separate injury. It’s somewhere lower in the calf to Achilles region. His preparation will then shift towards the World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us,” he added.
Cummins to play third Test
McDonald revealed that Australia skipper Pat Cummins is set to return after an injury lay-off and lead the side in the third Test, starting December 17 in Adelaide. “His body’s ready to go and barring anything else happening in the next week, I’d be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on,” McDonald said.
McDonald said Cummins was extremely close to featuring during the second Test at the Gabba, where the Aussies registered their second consecutive eight-wicket triumph over England for the series.
“There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat, and this is something we’ve done with Pat before, off long layoffs, where we’ve put some time and effort into rebuilding his body,” McDonald said.
“He was out at Allan Border Field, while everyone was out at the Gabba. So he simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells. So we feel as though he’ll be as best prepared as he can be.
“He was well ahead of where we thought he’d be at. And it did create a real live conversation for Brisbane, the skill readiness, the loads, and how he was pulling up. It was debated a lot leading into that Test match. So with that in mind, us seeing him further advanced, we feel it’d be really well placed for the challenges of Adelaide, albeit off a long way off. We feel as though the simulation in the nets have got him skill ready,” the coach added.