Hazlewood ruled out, in doubt for Boxing Day

Australia have confirmed pace ace Josh Hazlewood has suffered a hamstring strain and will not bowl for the remainder of the first Domain Test against New Zealand.

Hazlewood pulled up short attempting his ninth delivery in the final session of day two at Perth Stadium on Friday. He immediately left the field and did not return.

His future for the remainder of the three-Test series against the Black Caps remains unknown, with the right-armer's recovery to be monitored in the coming weeks.

However, with only 12 days before the annual Boxing Day Test gets underway at the MCG, which is shortly followed by the New Year's Test in Sydney, it is doubtful Hazlewood will play any further part in the series.

"It's a bit sore this morning. I knew as soon as I did it that there was a tear there. It's not too bad so we'll play it by ear the next couple of weeks," Hazlewood told Fox Cricket before play on Saturday.

"Bowlers know their bodies pretty well these days, we know when something 's not quite right.

"I'll take the next couple of weeks as they come. It's a tight series so it will be tough work to get up for the last test. We'll see how we go."

Hazlewood explained the injury, telling Channel 7 Sport: "It's a low grade hammy tear. I’m no doctor but I think a couple of weeks.

"It's pretty loose so we'll take it as it comes and monitor over the next week or two and hopefully progresses nice and quickly and can get back nice and fast."

Australia do have fast bowlers James Pattinson and Michael Neser in their squad, with one of them to come into the XI for Boxing Day if Hazlewood is unavailable. 

Speaking on Friday, Test great Ricky Ponting feared the 28-year-old's international summer could be over when he saw the paceman grimace and leave the ground.

"Looking at that I reckon it could be his summer over," Ponting told cricket.com.au.

"Just looking at his reaction you could tell he thinks it's quite a serious one. 

"The three New Zealand Test matches aren't that far apart so we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope it's not too serious.

"It's a huge blow in the game for the Aussies."

The injury setback mirrors the blow suffered by the visitors, who lost express paceman Lockie Ferguson to a calf strain on day one. Ferguson, who is making his Test debut, bowled 11 overs in extreme heat on Thursday before an MRI scan revealed a muscle-tendon strain in his right calf, ruling him out from bowling for the remainder of the match.

Fortunately for New Zealand, they have the services of seam-bowling allrounder Colin de Grandhomme to help shoulder the workload of the absent Ferguson.

But Australia do not have the luxury of an allrounder, with part-time leg-spinner Marnus Labuschagne and even Matthew Wade now likely to bowl more with the pink ball.

"Tim Paine is going to have to think about how he uses his quick men," Ponting said.

"It's probably going to have to be really short, sharp spells and Nathan Lyon and Marnus Labuschagne, and probably even Matthew Wade, are going to have to do a fair bit of bowling in the remainder of this game. 

"Painey is just going to have to think his way through and try and attack when he can and also be quite defensive when he can as well and try not to leak too many runs with the part-time bowlers that he brings on."

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