Hazlewood cleared from injury however Sean Abbott ruled out of Test

Josh Hazlewood cricket action

Josh Hazlewood has taken 295 international wickets with an average of 24.21 in 76 Tests

Released 30 minutes ago

Hazlewood received clearance to join the Australian team for the initial Test against England post-injury worries, however, teammate the paceman is unavailable

Each encountered muscle problems during their match for New South Wales versus Victoria during Sheffield Shield action on Wednesday

Scans showed the 34-year-old Hazlewood avoided a muscle strain. The 33-year-old Abbott, yet to debut, has a "moderate grade" injury

Team captain Cummins is out of the first Test, commencing later this month, meaning the absence of another established pace bowler like Hazlewood would have been a significant setback

The bowler stood doubtful to feature at the Perth match, with Hazlewood set to join Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland as the primary pace attack

Cummins, who is recovering from a back injury, is thought to be likely to comeback for the Brisbane match beginning December 4 in Brisbane

Batter Steve Smith will captain the side during the captain's recovery

Following other Australian cricketers, Hazlewood is involved in the current round of domestic cricket building up to the England series

Prior to recently, he was absent from domestic first-class games for New South Wales for over twelve months

He felt tightness in his leg muscle during the final stages of the opposition's batting on Wednesday and was substituted taking preventive measures

Both players participated in batting for the follow-on innings during their defeat by three hundred runs

"We're a week away from the Test series - typically prefer precautionary measures," stated the captain

"They wanted to find out the exact situation prior to testing it and potentially making the condition"

"Uncommon to see him cheerful, so it was good to see him smiling"

"He knows his body really well. He appeared slightly anxious (and) wanted to get medical assessment"

Abbott has won 57 caps for Australia in limited-overs formats

The yet-to-debut Doggett is the other seamer among the selections, offering support to the primary fast bowlers

Elizabeth Henry MD
Elizabeth Henry MD

A passionate digital artist and educator with over a decade of experience in illustration and design, dedicated to inspiring creativity in others.