Australia have been dealt a body blow as one of their bowling spearheads Josh Hazlewood will take no further part in the ongoing Gabba Test and is likely to be ruled out of the rest of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Hazlewood was in discussion with skipper Pat Cummins, coach Andre McDonald and physio Nick Jones after bowling just one over on Day 4 but decided to walk off due to calf soreness.
Hazlewood was sent for scans and a calf strain was revealed later on and Cricket Australia confirmed that the tall pacer was pulled back.
"Josh Hazlewood has sustained a right side calf strain which will prevent him from playing any further part in Test match against India in Brisbane," a CA statement said.
"He sustained the injury during the warm-up this morning and after bowling one over was unable to continue. He is likely to miss the remainder of the Test series. A squad replacement will be made in due course."
Australia will miss Hazlewood's services not only in the ongoing Test match in Brisbane but also in the rest of the series. Australia's move of rushing Hazlewood back, who was coming off a side strain having missed the Adelaide Test, has backfired and Brendan Doggett, who was called as a cover in the last game, is likely to be included in the Test squad.
Hazlewood was able to dismiss Virat Kohli as his only scalp in the game, who went chasing a wide delivery not for the first time in an overseas Test match in his career.
Cummins and Starc had to do the heavy lifting after Hazlewood walked off the field. India made the Australian bowlers toil hard for wickets. Cummins was successful to a certain extent but was made to put in massive effort before the bad light closed the play early yet again. India are still 193 runs behind with just one wicket in hand but were able to avoid the follow-on.
