Australia may need to cherry pick Tests Hazlewood plays, feels Aaron Finch

Former Australian cricketer Aaron Finch said that Australia may need to "cherry pick" the Tests the pacer Josh Hazlewood plays in coming seasons, saying that he is one of the "best four" bowlers in Australia alongside pacers Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and spinner Nathan Lyon. With the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series against India level at 1-1 with two matches to go, Australia have experienced a huge setback as Hazlewood has been ruled out of the series due to a calf strain.

After a mild side strain in the Perth Test which ruled him out of the second Adelaide Test, Hazlewood did return for the third match in Brisbane but faced a calf strain during the warm-up on the fourth day. He bowled one over and left the field for scans which confirmed the serious extent of his injury, ruling him out of the series.

Speaking to ESPN's Around the Wicket show as quoted by ESPNCricinfo, Finch said, "Think there's an opportunity to maybe even cherry-pick the games that he plays in the future. Everyone knows he is in that best three bowlers in Australia, or best four adding Nathan Lyon, but you need him on the park... [So, Australia might have to consider] picking the best conditions for Josh Hazlewood to have an impact and rotate the rest around that."

After a run of ten successive Test matches from Ashes Test in Old Trafford last year to the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, Hazlewood could very well be returning to a stop-start pattern due to his injuries. Between 2021 and 2023, he could play just four Tests in a two-year period.

Australia's leading pacers - Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins - featured all Tests last summer against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand. The selectors also did not embrace the rotation policy for workload management, though they rested Hazlewood for the Headingley Test in the middle of the 2023 Ashes.

Speaking to 7 Cricket, Hazlewood had said about his injury, "Just frustrating really. I ticked every box heading into the test and then I could understand if it was my side again and a little bit underdone but this is sort of just a random calf strain I guess. Will do a deep dive into it and see what we can come up with but it feels pretty random sort of an injury." Further, the fast bowler spoke about injuries he suffered in the past.

"I have had a little history of probably sides and calves they're probably the two things that have kept me out for the majority over the last four years but yeah I sort of just keep sort of adding another layer to the defence hopefully. Get back in the gym. I have ticked a lot of boxes you know in the last 12 months," the 33-year-old player added.

In the first Test at Perth, Hazlewood had taken five wickets, including a four-wicket haul in the first innings. Scott Boland will likely take Hazlewood's spot in Australia's playing eleven for the fourth Test, held at the MCG, starting from December 26 onwards. (ANI)