Paceman Josh Hazlewood ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes series
Hazlewood has endured a fresh injury setback
Pat Cummins' return on the cards. Check the full report
Australia have received both good and bad news' ahead of the all-important 3rd Ashes Test against England, which will give the Aussies a chance to take an unassailable lead in the series.
The Baggy Greens are 1-0 ahead, having claimed convincing victories in each of the first two matches. Their 8-wicket win in the 1st Test at Perth was followed by another victory by the same margin in the day/night Pink ball match played at the iconic Gabba in Brisbane.
Ben Stokes' Three Lions, who were touted as the best English side since 2010-11, face an uphill task in the series now. Their pursuit of an away Ashes series win in Australia have been marred with underperformances with a hint of over confidence.
From now, every ball in the series will be do-or-die for them and it will be interesting to see how they react in Adelaide after enduring back-to-back losses.
Josh Hazlewood Ruled Out Of Entire Ashes Series
Paceman Josh Hazlewood has been officially ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes 2025-26 series due to a recent injury setback.
He was recovering from a hamstring injury, sustained during a Sheffield Shield match last month, which had kept him out of the first 2 Tests.
The New South Wales pacer was looking certain for a return but a fresh setback, an Achilles injury, has ended his hopes of a comeback.
Australian head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed the development and also revealed that Hazlewood will now shift his attention to getting fit for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka.
"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." - McDonald told the ICC.
Pat Cummins Set To Return
After the bad, the good news is that regular captain Pat Cummins is most likely to feature in the remained 3 Test matches. Andrew McDonald gave an update on Cummins' recovery, claiming that the right-armer is well ahead of where everyone though he would be with his injury.
That Cummins won't get any proper match practice ahead of the Adelaide Test, is not a thing of worry for coach McDonald, who is happy to see him get simulation practice and believes that will be enough.
"There won't be any match opportunities for Pat, and this is something we've done with Pat before. 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." - McDonald concluded.
