Huge blow for Australia as Josh Hazlewood ruled out of first Ashes Test, but Mark Wood passed fit

Australia suffered a huge blow before the first Ashes Test when Josh Hazlewood was ruled out with a hamstring injury joining Pat Cummins on the sidelines for the start of the series.

Hazlewood sustained the injury playing Shield cricket earlier this week but was initially cleared of any serious damage and expected to travel to Perth for Friday’s first Test.

But he complained of continued pain in his right leg and a second scan on Saturday morning confirmed a strain ruling him out of at least the first Test. There is no date on his return and Australia will be missing two of their great fast bowlers with Cummins only gradually returning to bowling due to a back injury. It is unclear when he will be fully fit again.

The news came hours after Mark Wood was cleared of a hamstring strain himself after reporting pain in his left leg on Thursday. Wood will now train as normal for the first Test at Perth’s Optus Stadium although England would be taking a huge gamble if they picked him after bowling just eight overs since February.

For Australia, to lose Hazlewood is a devastating blow. His unrelenting accuracy, pace and bounce has made him one of the world’s leading fast bowlers with 295 Test wickets at an average of 24. The trio of Mitchell Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood have dominated teams in Australia for a decade. Cummins and Hazlewood boast a combined Test haul of 524 wickets but now only Starc remains standing.

Earlier this week Sean Abbott, the back up seamer in the first Test squad, was also ruled out with a hamstring injury further depleting Australia’s options. Instead Queensland’s Brendan Doggett is set for a debut with Starc and Scott Boland taking the new ball. Doggett will become only the third Australian cricketer with indigenous heritage to play Test cricket for Australia.

The Hazlewood news is a huge bonus for England and they are due some luck on Ashes tours. Normally it is England bowlers failing to stay fit but they go into the series with Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse, Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue all ready to go. The fact Wood has escaped a major problem with his hamstring after nine months out following knee surgery is another boost.

Wood reported stiffness in his left hamstring after bowling two four over spells in his comeback match for England against a Lions XI on Thursday.

But a scan found no tear and he will net as planned for the first Test, although he did not take the final day of England’s warm up match at Lilac Hill.

Wood has not played Test cricket since the summer of 2024 and his last competitive appearance was in the Champions Trophy in February. He underwent knee surgery in February and was carefully nursed back to fitness by England with the first Ashes Test and the fast pitch in Perth in mind.

England would relish unleashing a pairing of Wood and Jofra Archer but cannot afford to gamble on a bowler breaking down injured.

They hinted heavily at a five man attack next week with their team for the match against the Lions and do have depth in the squad with Carse and Tongue options if they decide not to risk Wood. They could change the balance of their attack and pick one of their spinners Will Jacks or Shoaib Bashir.

The groundsman at the Optus Stadium is promising a WACA style pitch with the same clay used for both surfaces although the new stadium uses a drop in surface which makes it unlikely it will have the same snake-like cracks that open up as the game goes on.

If Wood does not play in Perth his next opportunity to prove his fitness will be a match against the Prime Minister’s XI in Canberra before the second Test in Brisbane. He will have to play and bowl several spells in that game to convince himself more than anyone else that he has recovered fully to be able to cope with running in hard and landing his left leg on unforgiving Australian pitches.

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