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Callum Ferguson, a former Australian batter has called on the Aussie selectors to implement a rotation policy for Australia’s fast-bowling trio.
Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series due to injury.
The former Australian skipper, Aaron Finch reckons that Josh Hazlewood’s injury could see that the pacer gets to choose the games he would be a part of in the future.
Hazlewood, who missed the pink-ball Test in Adelaide due to a side strain was back in the side for the third Test at Brisbane, but ahead of the fourth day’s play, scans revealed that he would not be available for the series due to the recurring injury.
“With Hazlewood, he’s getting injured more and more regularly so that would be a real concern. Think there’s an opportunity to maybe even cherry-pick the games that he plays in the future,” Finch commented in ESPN’s Around The Wicket Show.
“Everyone knows he’s in that best three bowlers in Australia, or best four adding Nathan Lyon, but you need him on the park… (So, Australia might have to consider) picking the best conditions for Josh Hazlewood to have an impact and rotate the rest around that,” he added.
Australia’s fast-bowling trio of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood are in their 30s and the former Australian batter, Callum Ferguson suggested that they may have to take a look at their plans to help extend their Test career.
“It’s really important these next couple of years for the Australian cricket team with regards to the fast-bowling cartel because they’re not spring chickens anymore. And even the guys coming in behind aren’t the youngest either when you think of Scott Boland, and Michael Neser, who is out with a hamstring injury at the moment as well, so we need to start thinking about what’s the best way to maximise the impact of these guys and how do we elongate their careers,” Ferguson shared.
“We don’t want them to play less cricket, we want them to play more and I think a rotation policy might be the best way forward here because those five or six quicks are really, really good, and are up to it so let’s try and elongate their careers and rotating might be the best way forward,” he concluded.
With the fast-bowling trifecta reaching the final stretch of their careers, they could perhaps use an approach similar to that of Stuart Broad and James Anderson from England which helped enable them to extend their careers.
