Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, two injured pace spearheads, bowled in the nets on Tuesday, giving Australia a significant boost ahead of next week’s day-night second Ashes Test against England.
Six days prior to the first Test in Perth, Hazlewood had not been seen since straining his hamstring during a Sheffield Shield match. Brendan Doggett replaced him in that incredible match, which Australia won on Saturday by eight wickets in two days.
Due to a persistent lower back injury, skipper Cummins was also unavailable and Scott Boland took his place.
Pictures of the two cricketers training at the Cricket NSW headquarters in Sydney during New South Wales’ Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania were shared by local media.
With Cummins rushing in with a pink ball and Hazlewood being more conservative with a red one, their choice of balls was telling.
Hazlewood is still a serious doubt for the Brisbane Test on December 4, but Cummins stated over the weekend that he was “half a chance” following a strong performance in the nets in Perth.
Reporters were informed by Australia coach Andrew McDonald that no choices will be made until closer to the match day.
“I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series,” McDonald said of Hazlewood.
“We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.”
Regarding Cummins, he was more optimistic.
“There’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much,” he said.
