Hazlewood returns to training, Cummins arms himself with pink ball

In an encouraging sign for Australia, Josh Hazlewood returned to the nets on Tuesday as he recovers from the hamstring injury that kept him out of the opening Ashes Test in Perth.

Pat Cummins, meanwhile, was pictured bowling with a pink ball as he continues his push to return for the day-night Test at the Gabba following his back injury.

The pair trained at Cricket Central in Sydney while New South Wales were playing their Sheffield Shield match against Tasmania.

In what looked like clear evidence of immediate priorities, Hazlewood was bowling with a red ball. He is not expected to be available for the Gabba Test, so his comeback target will be Adelaide, which has reverted to a day Test this year.

Speaking on Monday, Australia coach Andrew McDonald was confident that Hazlewood would be available later in the Ashes.

"I know that he'll be available at some point during the series," he said. "We've got a little bit of that early rehab to go through to formulate where he may plug into the series, but we expect him to take some part in the series."

Cummins has been making good progress in ramping up his bowling in recent weeks and looked impressive in the nets in Perth ahead of the opening Test. The selectors will need to be fully confident that he can get through the workloads required for a Test, even if the early indications are that matches in this series may not go the distance.

"It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation," McDonald said. "The intensity was there, the ball speed was there. There's a lot of positives, but now it's just really building that resilience within the soft tissue and making sure that we're not putting him in harm's way in terms of accelerating it too much."

The first three Tests of the series are well spaced out - the gap between the first and second now 11 days after the two-day finish in Perth - but the schedule does become more condensed from Adelaide onwards: there is a four-day gap to the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne and the same to Sydney if those matches reach the fifth day.

With the day-night pink-ball element thrown into the mix for Brisbane, there is a good chance that it could be another short, sharp Test. In the current round of Sheffield Shield matches, ten wickets fell in the night session of the third day between Queensland and Victoria to hasten the contest to a result, although wickets hadn't fallen at the same rate on the first two days.

In that match, Xavier Bartlett put in an eye-catching performance with 4 for 35 in the second innings alongside a career-best 72 with the bat. Australia may not need further pace reinforcement during the Ashes, especially if Cummins and Hazlewood are available, but Bartlett, who has impressed in ODIs and T20Is, may have moved himself up the queue.

Michael Neser was the spare pace bowler in Perth and the Gabba is his home ground. His two previous Tests have been with the pink ball in Adelaide: against England in 2021-22 and West Indies in 2022-23.

In the build-up to the Ashes, the selectors also spoke of their hope that Jhye Richardson may become an option later in the series as he returns from the shoulder surgery he had earlier this year.

He trained with the Test squad in Perth and then bowled 20 wicketless overs for the Cricket Australia XI against England Lions at Lilac Hill. He is expected to feature for Australia A against the Lions in Brisbane next week.

"This game was a lot about physical preparation for me and making sure that we can get through," Richardson told reporters after the CA XI outing. "I'm sure there would have been a few people seeing a bit of ice on it after the bowling but that's basically just maintenance. The shoulder's feeling really good and it's feeling better and better each bowl.

"It's a decent hit out, the most overs I've bowled in a while and it's all part of the process to building up to be ready for four and five-day cricket."