Josh Hazlewood rolled in for a decent spell at Cricket Central on Tuesday, offering Australia a timely boost as the Ashes caravan prepares to head north. The right-arm quick, out of the Perth Test with a hamstring strain, bowled with the red ball for around 30 minutes while New South Wales faced Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield. Pat Cummins, recovering from a back complaint, trained in the adjacent lane, mixing in spells with the pink ball earmarked for the upcoming day-night match at the Gabba.
The early signs are simple enough: Hazlewood is working towards the third Test in Adelaide, still a traditional daytime fixture this season, and Cummins has his eye on a comeback in Brisbane next week. Neither camp is counting chickens, but the footage and the noise drifting from the nets were both encouraging.
Coach Andrew McDonald remains measured. “I know that he’ll be available at some point during the series,” he said on Monday. “We’ve got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series.” That plan now feels a touch firmer. Hazlewood’s run-up looked smooth, and the ball left his hand without obvious discomfort. The next step is simply volume: more overs, then a short fielding block, then back into overs again.
Cummins, meanwhile, keeps climbing through the bowling loads. In Perth he bowled at roughly 80 per cent and pulled up well. On Tuesday he stretched a bit further, taking the new pink ball — harder and slightly skiddier under lights — for several bursts. “It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation,” McDonald noted. “The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. There’s a lot of positives, but now it’s just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we’re not putting him in harm’s way in terms of accelerating it too much.”
The first Test lasted all of two days, so the gap to Brisbane has ballooned to 11. That break is useful for a side juggling fitness concerns, yet the calendar tightens later: only four clear days separate Brisbane and Boxing Day in Melbourne, and the same again between Melbourne and Sydney if either contest stretches to a fifth afternoon.
Pink-ball cricket at the Gabba can be brusque. During this week’s Shield round, ten wickets tumbled in a single night session between Queensland and Victoria, reminding everyone that the lacquered, slightly harder Kookaburra can rush the game along. That match also threw up an eye-catching all-round display from Xavier Bartlett — four wickets and a career-best 72 — the type of performance selectors quietly file away. With Cummins and Hazlewood tracking well, extra fast-bowling cover might not be needed immediately, but Bartlett’s white-ball form and fresh Shield numbers keep him in the conversation.
Michael Neser remains the reserve quick in the squad for now. The Gabba is his home patch, and both of his previous Tests have come with the pink ball in Adelaide. That local knowledge could yet be handy if Cummins requires another week. Elsewhere, Jhye Richardson continues his own comeback in WA grade cricket; the selectors floated his name in pre-series chats and still hope he might be an option as the summer wears on.
For the moment, Australia’s fast-bowling board looks healthier than it did a fortnight ago. Hazlewood has bowled pain-free, Cummins is sending down pink bricks, and the schedule — for a week at least — finally offers room to breathe.
