Pucovski no sure thing

Test star may sit out Sheffield Shield return as Victoria monitors injury

TEST opener Will Pucovski is “touch and go” to play for Victoria when the Sheffield Shield season resumes this month and could take more time out of the game to repair his damaged right shoulder.

Pucovski avoided surgery on his shoulder, which he hurt while fielding during his Test debut at the SCG last month, and was set to tour South Africa with the team before that series was postponed this week.

The 23-year-old and his fellow Test squad members are now available to play the entire second half of the domestic season which includes Shield and one-day games. A new schedule for the rest of the

Shield campaign is set to be confirmed early next week.

Victoria’s first two matches are likely to be against a NSW side that could feature Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

Rogers revealed Pucovski hadn’t been passed fit for their game against the Blues in Sydney, which could start on February

15. The former Test opener said officials were weighing up how best to handle Pucovski and his injury.

“I think it’s a little bit touch and go, to be honest,” Rogers said on Thursday. “We’re just trying to see how it settles down and if he’s OK to play some of the cross-bat shots.”

Australia is not due to play another Test match until November,

either when the Ashes begins or possibly in a one-off Test against Afghanistan.

Either way Pucovski could have the entire winter to heal should he need it.

“The other issue is what do we want to do over the next period with him? Does he want to really get on top of this and if that’s the case, does that mean some serious medical work and that could be time out of the game?” Rogers told RSN.

“With this kind of gap in the schedule, we’ll have to give it some serious thought.”

Rogers said it would be “good for the competition” to see the Test stars play more domestic cricket. But how much they play could yet be determined by Cricket Australia’s high-performance unit.