AUS vs ENG: Josh Hazlewood ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes 2025/26

Australia’s star pacer Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out of the entire Ashes series 2025 due to an Achilles injury. He already missed the first two matches due to his hamstring blow. According to reports, he was scheduled to join ahead of the Brisbane test, but during his recovery, he suffered a new injury, ruling him out of the entire series. Although Australia, without Hazlewood, defeated England convincingly in the first two tests, his exclusion from the series is a big blow for Australia.

Australia's head coach, Andrew McDonald, addressed the media about Hazlewood’s injury and future availability. He further stated that his focus is to get his full match fitness ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup 2026, which is set to start on February 07 in India and Sri Lanka. 

With less than two months remaining in the World Cup, Australia's team management doesn't want to take any chances with Hazlewood's injury. Mitchell Starc has already said goodbye to T20. Therefore, Hazlewood's participation in the T20 World Cup would be crucial for Australia.

“Unfortunately, Josh won’t be a part of the Ashes. Really, really flat for him. A couple of setbacks that we didn’t see coming, and we thought he would play a huge part in the series. It’s a totally separate injury. It’s somewhere lower in the calf, in the Achilles region. His preparation will then shift towards the World Cup, which is an incredibly important campaign for us,” McDonald was quoted as saying.

At the same time, Australia received a major boost with skipper Pat Cummins’s return in the Aussies' squad for the third test, which is scheduled to be played from December 17 to 21. The next cricket match of the ongoing Ashes 2025 will be held at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide. Cummins has also missed the first two tests due to his back injury. Andrew McDonald confirmed that Cummins has started the net sessions and will play the third test. 

“There won’t be any match opportunities for Pat (before Adelaide)—and this is something we’ve done with Pat before longish layoffs, where we’ve put some time and effort into rebuilding his body. He was out at Allan Border Field whilst everyone was at the Gabba; he simulated pretty much what a match will look like out there with multiple spells. His body’s ready to go, and, barring anything else happening in the next week, I’d be expecting Pat to be tossing the coin and putting the blazer on,” McDonald added.

Despite the absence of Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, Australia is currently leading the series 2-0. They comfortably defeated their archrivals, England, in the Perth and Brisbane tests. Mitchell Starc has become a nightmare for the English batting side, taking 18 wickets in 2 matches. Even in the Brisbane test, he also contributed with the bat, scoring 77 runs. Apart from Starc, Brendan Doggett, Scott Boland, and Michael Neser also played important roles in the Aussies’ first two-match victory. Australia is only one win away from sealing the series, and after their skipper’s return, their chances have already grown more.

Mark Wood ruled out due to a left-knee injury

On the other hand, the English team also suffered a major setback when their star fast bowler Mark Wood was ruled out of the remainder of the Ashes 2025/26 due to his left-knee injury, which occurred in the opening test at Perth. Due to this injury, he also missed the second test. During the Perth test, Mark Wood bowled just 11 overs (8 in the first innings and 3 in the second) and went wicketless. He will return soon to his nation for rehabilitation with the ECB medical staff. Surrey’s Matthew Fisher will replace him for the remainder of the Ashes 2025/26, who has already made his test debut against the West Indies at Bridgetown in 2022. In that match, Fisher got his maiden test wicket when he dismissed John Campbell in his very second delivery.