Already down 0-2 in the Test series, Australia were on Monday dealt further blow when fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the remaining two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after failing to recover from his left achilles injury. (More Cricket News)
Australia lost the first two Tests -- in Nagpur and Delhi -- inside three days. The last two matches will be played in Indore (March 1 to 5) and Ahmedabad (March 9 to 13).
Australia head coach Andrew McDonald confirmed that Hazlewood, who missed the Nagpur and Delhi Tests, will continue his rehabilitation in Sydney.
The 32-year-old Hazlewood sustained the injury during his comeback Test against South Africa in Sydney.
"Josh Hazlewood out, he'll be going home," McDonald said.
McDonald, however, is uncertain about David Warner's status after the opener was hit on his elbow in the second Test and was subbed out of the match due a concussion.
"Warner's still sore at the moment. We had a meeting just before discussing this. We're in no rush to make any decisions at this point in time around Davey. Just seeing how that settles, how functional that is," said McDonald.
"It will be basically how sore and how functional it is as to what decision we make with him and then the length of the injury. There's some talk the length of injury could be anywhere between a week plus depending how that settles down. There's a bit of unknown there. I'll leave that to the medical team and they'll inform me once they know."
Travis Head came out to bat in Australia's second innings in place of Warner in Delhi and McDonald said he will replace Warner if the veteran left-handed opener fails to recover on time.
"If Dave's unavailable it would make perfect sense. We did discuss before coming over here that if we were to lose an opening batter that Trav would be one we'd look to put up there. We feel in the subcontinental conditions that he can get off to the fast starts which he showed," he said.
"We don't see (Head) as an opener in all conditions, more subcontinental and in other conditions back to the middle order."
The coach, however, said that all-rounder Cameron Green will be fit for Indore.
"He was close. It's about building confidence. He had the setback in Bangalore, a little setback batting in Bangalore where he had some jarring and there was a fair bit of discomfort in that finger," McDonald said.
"If he didn't have that, I think the second Test was real. But it probably just delayed it those few days.
"And we contemplated him as a concussion sub as well. So that was another discussion. But we felt like if he wasn't right to go at the start, then what was a couple of days. We're better off loading up for the third Test match and in a good frame of mind," he added.
