India vs Australia: Josh Hazlewood ruled out, David Warner in doubt ahead of 3rd Test

Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 due to injury.

Australian skipper Pat Cummins, meanwhile, has flown back home due to a serious family reason but will be back in time for the third and the fourth Test of the four-match series in India. The remaining two Tests will be played in Indore and Ahmedabad respectively.

India defeated Australia by six wickets in Delhi to go 2-0 up and in the process, Rohit Sharma and Co retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Hazlewood has returned home to continue his rehabilitation from an Achilles complaint that has sidelined him from the first two Tests, confirmed Australia head coach Andrew McDonald. While Hazlewood has been bowling in training sessions in recent weeks, he has not been able to recover fully from the injury, which he sustained last November during a Test against West Indies at home.

Meanwhile, the New South Wales bowler is not expected to be available for the Sheffield Shield as well.

Australia, on the other hand, also have good news as all-rounder Cameroon Green and fast bowler Mitchell Starc are 100 percent fit ahead of the Indore Test. Both have recovered from their serious finger injuries. Green was close to being available for the Delhi Test, while McDonald said Starc had been available despite not being 100 per cent fit.

Matthew Kuhnemann was ultimately selected instead as a third spinner, performing well in his debut Test.

Todd Murphy, who made his Test debut in the first Test against India earlier this month, was managing a side injury during the Delhi Test but McDonald is confident the spinner would be right for the Indore Test beginning March 1.

"He had a slight niggle in the side. It looks as though the timeframe between now and the next Test should be enough to resolve that. So he'll have not a test but he'll have a good workout two days before … it looks good," McDonald told reporters on Monday.

David Warner could miss 3rd Test

Australia's opening batsman David Warner is also in doubt for the third Test. Warner was substituted out of the Delhi Test with concussion but he also suffered a hairline fracture in his left elbow from separate blows while facing India's Mohammed Siraj.

"[Warner]'s still sore at the moment. We had a meeting just before discussing through 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.

"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," McDonald said further.

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KS Bharat, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat