SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia quick Josh Hazlewood bowled two spells at full pace at Adelaide Oval on Monday and thinks he will know in the next 24 hours if he will be available for the third test against India in Brisbane.
Hazlewood missed the 10-wicket win over India in Adelaide on Sunday with the latest in a series of side strains that have blighted his career.
“I think it’ll be how I pull up in the 24 hours following it really,” Hazlewood told reporters.
“It’s just that repetitive (action) and obviously two spells makes a big difference. Cooling down pretty much fully and then going again in the same day, and the intensity has got to be right up there as well.
“So a few boxes to tick, but it’s probably the 24 hours that follow and pulling up again the next day and then thinking ‘yeah, I’d be right to go again if I had to’.”
Scott Boland, playing his first test in 17 months, stood in for Hazlewood in the pace attack for the second test and finished with match figures of 5-105 as Australia wrapped up victory well inside three days to level the series at 1-1.
Hazlewood said he might have been able to play through the pain in Adelaide but always took a cautious approach with side strains given the number he has had.
“I think I would have been in a pretty bad state by the end of the game – even though it was only a short game, it just wasn’t quite right,” the 33-year-old said.
“Obviously got Scotty there, who does a fantastic job every time he plays. Sometimes you’ve got to be pretty much 100% to play.”
Hazlewood also addressed the row about his comments in a press conference during the heavy defeat in the first test, which were interpreted by some media as exposing a rift in the dressing room between bowlers and batters.
“Walking out of that press conference, I thought nothing of it, a normal one for me and, yeah, I was pretty surprised how things ended up,” he said.
“But I think the dead air there for a while, 10 days between games, it was something to talk about.”
The third test at the Gabba starts on Saturday.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Peter Rutherford)
