Hazlewood set to miss Brisbane, Cummins pushes hard for return

Josh Hazlewood is set to miss the second Test against England in Brisbane but there is confidence he will be able to play a role later in the Ashes series while Pat Cummins is closing in on a return which could come next week at the Gabba.

Hazlewood was ruled out of the opening Test in Perth after picking up a hamstring problem in the Sheffield Shield with an initial scan not showing the injury. It's understood he will join the squad in Brisbane to continue his rehab with coach Andrew McDonald expecting him to be available later in the series.

"He's working through the first week of his rehab," McDonald said. "I'm not sure that we need to give an update on that. Once he gets further down the track and [we] have some rough timelines, then we'll be in a position to communicate that.

"I know that he'll be available at some point during the series. 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."

The rapid two-day finish to the opening Test has forced a minor change in plans to Cummins' bowling schedule after he had trained impressively in the lead-up to the first Test. He had been due to bowl on the fourth day of the Test on Monday, but after traveling home to Sydney that has been pushed back a day.

However, the signs continue to be encouraging for Australia's captain although McDonald said it could be a late call whether he plays the day-night Test in Brisbane. If Cummins was to return and the second Test went all five days - and unlikely proposition if Perth is any guide - there would be an eight-day gap to the third in Adelaide.

Cummins has previously said that playing back-to-back Tests in the series may be a challenge for him, although short games could work in his favour.

"Once we see him again we'll be able to then join the dots as to what that potentially looks like," McDonald said. "But for those who saw him in Perth, I did say this a while back that he'll be up and bowling...and people will be sitting there questioning why he's not playing.

"It looked like a player that was nearing the completion of his rehabilitation. 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.

"But it will be a genuine discussion leading into this Test match. That may be one that eventuates late for us. A little bit to work through but it's nearing completion, which is really, really positive."

In the absence of Cummins and Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc led the attack magnificently with a 10-wicket match haul including a career-best 7 for 58 in the first innings. Scott Boland bounced back from a poor opening-day display where England took him at a run-a-ball with a game changing burst in the second innings while debutant Brendan Doggett picked up five for the match. McDonald took the blame for Boland's opening day performance saying there had been a directive for him to bowl very full before returning to his natural lengths in the second.

In Australia's high-octane run chase, Jake Weatherald put together a valuable hand alongside Travis Head after a first-innings duck to ensure both debutants had played a role in the match

"It's always that unknown when you jump up from Shield level into the Test match arena and they looked right at home, the skill level, the composure, it was a fit," McDonald said. "It's always nice to see that in a Test when you've got those unknowns.

"I thought Brendan Doggett, his ability to execute the bouncer plan when we needed him to and [then] to pitch the ball up get in the right areas. And Jake in the second innings, I thought the way he was able to put pressure back on, we want to be that type of batting unit that has that intent and looks to score, and he most certainly did that."

Australia have retained the option of adding a 15th player to the squad for Brisbane. When Hazlewood and Sean Abbott were ruled out of Perth they only called up Michael Neser as cover.