Australia Announces Playing XI for The Third Test, Josh Hazelwood is Back.

Australia has announced its playing 11 for the third test of the Border- Gavaskar Trophy against India. Josh Hazelwood was unavailable during the second test due to a side strain, but now he will be back for the third test.

Playing XI for the Third Test Match

Usman Khawaja

Nathan McSweeney

Marnus Labuschagne

Steve Smith

Travis Head

Mitch Marsh

Alex Carey (wk)

Pat Cummins(C)

Mitch Starc

Nathan Lyon

Josh Hazlewood

JUST IN: Josh Hazlewood is back for the Gabba Test! #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/ikV3L6JAU6

— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) December 13, 2024

Scott Boland, who performed well in the Day Night test, has been dropped from the team so that Josh Hazelwood can come again. Scott took five wickets in the game, including the important one of Virat Kohli in the second innings. 

While the rest of the team is the same, Australia will look to take the series lead in the third test.

In the first test match at Perth, Josh took five wickets: four in the first innings and one in the second innings. He took Virat's crucial wicket and sent Devdutt Padikkal back to the pavilion in both innings. India won the match by a massive 295 runs, taking the lead in the series by 1-0. 

Joe Hazelood's during India's second innings batting got a side strain. Pat Cummins shared that in the second session of the third day, he bowled a little extra for two overs, which might have put an extra load on the body.

Cummins, on Hazelwood's injury during the first test,

"It was later on in that second innings, Fair to say we probably thought the game was starting to slip away. We still needed six or seven wickets and were about 400 behind."

He's had no hiccups," Cummins told reporters.

"He had a delicious bowl yesterday; he had another bowl in Adelaide a few days ago. Him and the medical team are confident."

"We've seen it a few times where Josh has pushed through to get through a Test match, and a little bit of soreness turns into a month or two of injury."

"So we made the call then that it probably wasn't worth the risk of keeping him bowling. I think he bowled an extra two overs leading into a tea break, and he said it felt ok, but I thought from there, 'That's enough'."

In the second test, Australia won decisively with a 10-wicket victory, and the match was full of drama and performances. Travis Head, Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc performed well from the Australian side, but one controversy also happened during the test match when Travis Head got out. When he was going back, a heated conversation happened between Mohammed Siraj and him on the field. The conversation between the duo led to the penalties from the ICC, who gave one demerit point to both while also finding Mohammed Siraj 20% of his match fee.