Ashes 2021-22: Josh Hazlewood gets ruled out of the 2nd Test due to a side strain

The high-profile Ashes is currently up between Australia and England where hosts have already taken a 1-0 lead after flaunting class in the opening contest. However, moving into the Adelaide game, the hosts are in for some trouble as pacer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the second Ashes game owing to a side strain.

It has to be noted that Hazlewood suffered the strain while playing the first game where his side dominated the visitors by nine wickets at the Gabba. As per the reports, he was seen in casual clothes while taking a flight back from Brisbane to Sydney without any of his teammates around.

As he is ruled out of the second Ashes, Jhye Richardson has been named as his replacement as per the reports by Foxsports.com.au. Richardson is all set to play his third Test and it will be his first after his debut series against Sri Lanka which came back in 2019.

There were speculations around Hazlewood’s fitness as on the fourth day of the game, he marked his way back to the pavilion after delivering just eight overs. After a while, skipper Pat Cummins talked of the Australian quick having pulled up sore during England’s 2^nd innings. “Yeah he was a little bit sore yesterday, so we just tried to get him through,” Cummins had said after the action of the fourth day.

Pat Cummins spoke of Josh Hazlewood’s injury after the conclusion of the Ashes opener

“Obviously, it’s a five-Test match series, so (we) didn’t want to try and break him yesterday. He pulled up OK today, so we’ll keep managing him.

“I think we’ll wait until he wakes up in the morning. I think a key is we don’t want to put him in jeopardy for the whole series so we’ll take our time. He had a scan last night so we will kind of work through that. He bowled today but no plan yet, sleep on it, see how he pulls up tomorrow,” said Cummins after winning the Ashes opener.