“While disappointing, it does present a great opportunity for other players to perform for Australia in a world event,” Bailey said. One of those “other players” could be Beau Webster, who
Cricket Australia said Cummins and Hazlewood would begin an “extended period of rehabilitation”. They are missing the ongoing Test series in Sri Lanka too, but there is no reason to believe at this stage that they wouldn’t be able to recover in time for the World Test Championship final against South Africa at Lord’s in June.
“They’re the two obvious ones. Steve has done a great job here in the [first] Test match. He’s done some good work in one-day international cricket across the journey as well. So it’s between those two.”
Cummins skipped the Sri Lanka Tests to be at home for the birth of his second child, but he has also been nursing the ankle issue that had flared up after a heavy workload in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India. Hazlewood is understood to be dealing with a hip issue after recovering from the side and calf injuries that made him miss three of the five Tests against India and the Test tour of Sri Lanka.
Bailey and Co might also have a challenge cobbling an XI together for the first ODI against Sri Lanka given that, apart from the missing players, there is only one travel day scheduled between the fifth day of the second Test and the first ODI, with ODI squad members Head, Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc all playing the Test match that is currently on in Galle.
AAP contributed to this news report.