Aussie gamble in final

Faith in quick Hazlewood

Australia has made the surprising call to roll the dice on Josh Hazlewood’s fitness for the World Test Championship Final and ignore the claims of in-form quick Michael Neser.

Hazlewood was not expected to feature in the Final to be played against India at The Oval on June 7 after recently returning home early from the Indian Premier League with minor side soreness and not having played a Test since January when he injured an achilles.

Due to various fitness issues, Hazlewood has only played two Tests in the past two years.

The strong expectation was Australia would give Hazlewood longer to build up his fitness and resilience for the fiveTest Ashes series to follow the WTC Final, but selectors have instead named the big paceman as one of only four quicks in their 15-man WTC squad.

Even if Hazlewood doesn’t make the final XI, it means Australia will be launching into the WTC Final with three cold starters in their fast bowling arsenal – with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland all not having played any cricket since the Indian Test series back in March.

Although not in the original 17-man Ashes squad, selectors had the option of calling up Queensland seamer Neser to the 15-man party for the WTC, as the only Australian quick currently playing in English conditions – and in red hot form.

Neser has been absolutely flying for his county side Glamorgan, taking a hat-trick as part of a seven-wicket haul, and also smashing a first-class century with the bat.

Many good judges feel twoTest star Neser’s game is perfectly suited to English conditions.

Neser is still a strong chance to be added to the Ashes squad at some point, but could only be injected into the WTC squad if there was a late injury.

All-rounder Mitchell Marsh and batsman Matthew Renshaw are the two players from the 17-man Ashes squad to miss the cut for the revised WTC squad. It confirms Marcus Harris shapes as next man in should Australia make a change to their batting order during the English summer.

Reserve spinner Todd Murphy and back-up spinner Todd Murphy have made the cut.

Meanwhile, India has included some new faces in its 15man squad from the side that defeated Australia in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy earlier this year.

Veteran Ajinkya Rahane is back, along with Shardul Thakur, Jaydev Unadakt and Ishan Kishan – with IPL superstar Suryakumar missing the cut.