Josh Hazlewood: Questions asked of Australia’s call to pick injury-prone quick after latest calf setback

Serious questions are being asked of Australia’s call to pick injury-prone quick Josh Hazlewood after another setback that could end his Test summer.

Hazlewood will miss the crunch final day of the Brisbane Test with a calf strain which Cricket Australia also concedes is likely to also keep him out of the final two matches.

The 33-year-old missed the Adelaide Test with a side strain he suffered in Perth, but was cleared fit and brought straight back into the side.

The workhorse fast bowler was injured in the warm-up on day four at the Gabba and bowled just one over before leaving the field and being whisked away for scans.

He is now almost certain to miss the Boxing Day Test from next week and is in serious doubt for the series-ender in Sydney.

It is likely Scott Boland, who burst onto the scene with a stunning six-wicket rampage on his home deck three summers ago, will play at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

“Josh Hazlewood has sustained a right-sided calf strain which will prevent him from playing any further part in the NRMA Insurance Test match against India in Brisbane,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson said.

“He sustained the injury during the warm-up this morning and after bowling one over was unable to continue.

“He is likely to miss the remainder of the Test series. A squad replacement will be made in due course.”

Australia will now need to bowl India out for a second time in as many games without Hazlewood and with all-rounder Mitch Marsh clearly hampered.

Marsh has been declared fit to bowl in each of the first three Tests, despite battling through a sore back. He bowled just two overs in India’s first innings in Brisbane after sending down just four in Adelaide last week.

It means the host could turn to the part-time off-spin of Travis Head and the new-found seamers of Marnus Labuschagne when they are called on to bowl again.

Bad light stopped play just moments after India avoided the follow-on, a significant boost to their hopes of saving the match, and the visitors finished the day 9-252.

Former Australian quick Damien Fleming suggested Hazlewood must have already had tightness in his calf because a genuine strain is the type of injury normally suffered much later in the day.

“Sad news for Josh Hazlewood and there must have been some tightness there,” he told Channel 7 and 7plus.

“To do your calf in the warm-up, where you normally are starting at 50 per cent and then progressing yourself through, normally those type of injuries are when you’ve been bowling a lot on a long day and the strain gets too much.

“Not surprised he is out for the summer, though. That’s going to be a three, four-week injury.”

Ex-Test spinner Kerry O’Keefe suggested Australia’s plan might have been for Hazlewood to miss in Melbourne anyway.

“Trying to look at the Australian strategy, I think they had in mind that Hazlewood should play this and miss Melbourne,” he told Fox Cricket.

“Melbourne by a long way is his worst pitch in Australia and then (Mitchell) Starc misses Sydney, which is a long way his worst pitch in Australia.

“So I think they factored in that Hazlewood was going to play this one and that Boland, who loves the MCG, would come in for Melbourne. And that may be the case now anyway.”