Australia will be without the services of their veteran pacer Josh Hazlewood for the pink-ball Test at The Gabba, Brisbane. On November 24, head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed that Hazlewood is still undergoing rehabilitation after suffering hamstring injury in Sheffield Shield game and will be available to play later in the Ashes 2025-26.
"He's working through the first week of his rehab," McDonald told the reporters. "I'm not sure that we need to give an update on that. Once he gets further down the track and [we] have some rough timelines, then we'll be in a position to communicate that.
"I know that he'll be available at some point during the series. 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."
Will Cummins play at The Gabba?
Meanwhile, McDonald is in no hurry to see skipper Pat Cummins back into action and risk aggravating his injury. Cummins has been bowling well in the nets but a call on his selection will be taken closer to the pink-ball Test.
"Once we see him again we'll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like," McDonald said. "But for those who saw him in Perth, I did say this a while back that he'll be up and bowling...and people will be sitting there questioning why he's not playing.
"It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation. The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. 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.
"But it will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match. That may be one that eventuates late for us. A little bit to work through but it's nearing completion, which is really, really positive."
Cummins was set to bowl at his full potential in the nets on Day 4 of the Test. But, as the Perth Test ended in just two days, he travelled back home to Sydney.
Another chance for Doggett?
If Cummins isn’t fit to play at The Gabba, Brendan Doggett is likely to retain his place in the side. Doggett executed Australia’s short ball plan and got five wickets on his Test debut.
"I thought Brendan Doggett, his ability to execute the bouncer plan when we needed him to and [then] to pitch the ball up get in the right areas. And Jake in the second innings, I thought the way he was able to put pressure back on, we want to be that type of batting unit that has that intent and looks to score, and he most certainly did that," said the Australian coach.