Latest Hazlewood blow only one piece of long-term puzzle

Only moments after Josh Hazlewood hurt his calf as he warmed up at the Gabba on Tuesday, New Zealand's Will O'Rourke was roughing up Australia's next home Test opponents across the Tasman. In the space of four balls, the 23-year-old tearaway with a Morne Morkel-like action dismissed England's brightest young talent, Harry Brook, hit Ollie Pope on the pad with a delivery recorded at 153kph, before the same batter ducked into a rapid bouncer and got hit on the shoulder.

In Brisbane, a clearly hobbled Hazlewood soon sent down his first ball of day four at 128kph, before abandoning his attempt to play through injury. This was not the same Hazlewood who used the new ball expertly to dismiss Virat Kohli cheaply for the second time in three innings, nor the one who has averaged 13.16 in this series. 

But it is the same Hazlewood who has now suffered side injuries in the opening Test of three of the past four home seasons, missed the last Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to an Achilles injury, and has left Australia a bowler short during a Test for the third time since the 2021-22 Ashes.

The previous two instances of Hazlewood suffering mid-Test injuries proved inconsequential (Australia won the 2021-22 Gabba Test comfortably, and lost the 2024-25 Perth Test equally comprehensively) but his absence in this match was keenly felt as India's defiant tail pushed them over the follow-on target.

For Australian selectors who have been firm in insisting their overarching focus is winning the next Test series, the time for forward planning for next summer's Ashes is not now, a little over halfway through this India campaign. Even Ben Stokes admitted recently his side needs to tone down their preoccupation with the rivalry. But by going down the path of prioritising experience over succession planning, Andrew McDonald and co. may have to accept that trade-offs like Hazlewood's latest stumble will only become more common.   

"He's pretty despondent," assistant coach Dan Vettori said of Hazlewood. "Obviously he felt it in the warm-ups this morning and gave it a good crack.

"It's just unfortunate for him to come back and put so much effort in after another injury with the side strain from the last Test, to pick up a calf injury here, particularly in these circumstances, was really tough on him.

"He's obviously one of the best bowlers in the world, so it obviously affects the team." 

Injuries go hand-in-hand with fast bowlers and are not limited to older ones either. Yet, the signs of an ageing side have become apparent in other ways. Steve Smith put down a catch on the first ball of day four he would ordinarily have snapped up with his eyes closed, stumbling backwards into Usman Khawaja, who has also put down several chances in this series. As he had shown with the bat, Smith's fielding brilliance is still there – his subsequent one-hander off KL Rahul marked one of the best catches of his career – but the game may not be as easy for him as it was.

The merits of picking Hazlewood for this Test will be debated. Only medical staff can determine whether the 33-year-old's previous side injury had any bearing on this current calf concern. It is worth noting his able stand-in in Adelaide, Scott Boland, is close to two full years older than Hazlewood and battled his own injury concerns leading into this summer. Michael Neser splits the pair in terms of age at 34 and is out until the new year with a hamstring tear. Younger options like Jhye Richardson and Lance Morris have been just as injury-prone.

Boland shapes as the obvious choice for his home Test at the MCG.

"I think Boland speaks for himself," said Vettori. "The way he bowled in Adelaide, the way he's consistently been as the back-up seamer - every single time he's been asked to step up, particularly in Australia, he's been outstanding. 

"So I think that would be the logical thing to conclude."

Harder decisions for selectors are on the horizon. Khawaja, who has expressed his hope of featuring in next summer's Ashes, will turn 39 during that series, while Nathan Lyon will be 38. Only four members of the XI picked for the Gabba will be younger than 34 by that point. Australia tour Sri Lanka and the Caribbean before then, and might have a World Test Championship title to defend at Lord's too.

Age might not matter for many of those eager to make the Ashes, maybe even for most. Mitchell Starc, six weeks shy of his 35th birthday, has bowled almost a third of Australia's first innings overs and was still hitting top speed in the final hour of play. His tally of 89.1 overs for the series is more than any other bowler and the worst he had to show for it on day four was some hamstring tightness. 

In the lead-in to this series, Australia flagged that playing all five Tests could be a stretch for their fast bowlers. But with the ledger likely to be deadlocked going into Boxing Day, Vettori admitted Starc and Pat Cummins now "become vitally important" – although he added that was always the case.

"They're still at their relative numbers that we'd expect through this amount of Test matches," Vettori said of Starc and Cummins (whose 87.3 overs for the series is second only to the left-armer). 

"The pretty light workload in Adelaide and then coming into today, because of the (rain) breaks, it didn't feel like we pushed them too hard. 

"It was a tricky situation at the end (of day four) there when the ball was incredibly soft and getting wet. To try and push them a little bit longer to try to get that wicket – that was the only time we felt they were slightly extended. But so far it feels like the norm."

One of Starc's final-session bouncers to Nitish Kumar Reddy, 13 years his junior, was clocked at 141kph. It was as threatening as the O'Rourke bumper that had shaken up Pope in Hamilton hours earlier. If nothing else, it highlights that age is not everything. But Australia cannot delay the inevitable forever either.

NRMA Insurance Men's Test Series v India

First Test: India won by 295 runs

Second Test: Australia won by 10 wickets

Third Test: December 14-18: The Gabba, Brisbane, 11.20am AEDT

Fourth Test: December 26-30: MCG, Melbourne, 10.30am AEDT

Fifth Test: January 3-7: SCG, Sydney, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Brendan Doggett, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nathan McSweeney, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Jasprit Bumrah (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Devdutt Padikkal, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar. Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed, Yash Dayal