Josh Hazlewood ruled out of Ashes after Achilles aggravation

Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the remaining 2025-26 Ashes series after suffering a fresh injury setback, coach Andrew McDonald confirme. The right-arm seamer had been nursing a hamstring strain picked up during last month’s Sheffield Shield but exacerbated his Achilles niggle last week, nipping any chances of featuring against England this summer in the bud. He will now target a comeback ahead of Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign in February.

“Really flat for him,” McDonald said. “A couple of setbacks that we didn’t see coming. We thought he’d play a huge part in the series, so we really feel for him that he won’t get that opportunity.”

While Hazlewood is unfortunately out of the scheme of things, the news around Pat Cummins’ return is much more promising. He is expected to take back the captaincy duties from Steve Smith in next week’s Adelaide Test. Cummins has been missing in action since July due to a lower-back injury but passed muster during a series of match-simulation spells at Allan Border Field.

McDonald said the 32-year-old is on course to be added to Australia’s squad and grab the steering wheel. “There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat before Adelaide, but this is something we’ve done with him before long layoffs,” he said. “We feel as though he’ll be as best prepared as can be.”

Nathan Lyon is also tipped to return for the last three Tests after being overlooked for the pink-ball Test in Brisbane, an exclusion that left him feeling ‘absolutely filthy.”

Meanwhile, Mitchell Starc, who tops the wicket charts in the series with 18 wickets from two Tests, carried a minor left-side strain in Gabba but remains in no doubt for Adelaide. Australia are mindful of the tight turnaround between the remainder of the clashes, with Starc and Scott Boland having already delivered significant workloads.

With Cummins and Lyon on their way back, two of Boland, Michael Neser and Brendan Doggett are supposed to sit out in Adelaide, adding fresh pace options for the Melbourne and Sydney Tests. Jhye Richardson is a potential late-series consideration after sending down 26 overs for Australia A last week.

“The gap between the early Tests was something we thought we could manage,” McDonald said. “It’s probably more so in Tests four and five, but we’ve got a big inclusion coming and that will create a different balance to our attack.”