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Mitchell Marsh will not bowl again in this Test after straining his right hamstring on a searingly hot day that left Australia severely under-resourced at the Gabba. The team physio Alex Kountouris was the busiest man at the ground as Australia's fast bowlers went down with worrying regularity, with Mitchell Johnson the only one of the four main seamers to get through unscathed.
Mitchell Starc left the field during the middle session after struggling with back and rib pain, as well as the Brisbane heat, and debutant Josh Hazlewood battled cramps that forced him from the field shortly before stumps. However, both Starc and Hazlewood are expected to be available to bowl on day two, while Marsh's injury appears the most serious.
"He's got a mild low-grade hamstring strain on his right leg," Kountouris said of Marsh. "He's had surgery on the left leg a year ago and he's also injured the right one maybe two years ago. This is a mild injury ... He's going to have a scan today and we'll try to get him on the field tomorrow and hopefully have him batting in some way if that's useful."
Marsh pulled up gingerly after delivering the final ball of his first over after lunch, and his sixth of the innings, and immediately left the field to be assessed. His history of hamstring issues is a concern. In October, he was ruled out of Australia's limited-overs games against Pakistan in the UAE after hurting his left hamstring, the same one that required surgery two years earlier.
In 2013 he picked up a hamstring injury during the Australia A tour of South Africa in July-August and aggravated it during Champions League training with the Perth Scorchers in September. The previous year he tore his hamstring tendons off the bone while diving to make his ground while batting in a one-day game for Western Australia.
Marsh's injury, which came after he finally claimed his first Test wicket in the morning session, meant a greater bowling workload for the side's other allrounder Shane Watson. The injury-prone Watson was one of the few fit members of the attack on day one and he had to complete Hazlewood's 16th over, with the second new ball, just before stumps.
Hazlewood had cramped earlier in the day but after some stretches and attention from the physio, completed his over. However, when the problem again arose two balls into a new spell he could not continue. Kountouris said he was confident that Hazlewood would be able to continue bowling after some rest on Wednesday night.
"He had cramps all over his body, so it wasn't just one place," Kountouris said. "Typically when they cramp they cramp in their calf or their hamstring or something and they tend to get on with it. The difficulty with him is he was cramping everywhere. It was both calves, both hamstrings, groins, hips, he just couldn't function.
"You could see his pace was down when he came back and bowled and he showed some courage to do that because he was really struggling. Every ball he bowled he was cramping up in multiple places. He will recover overnight and we'll see how he wakes up tomorrow. We expect him to be bowling tomorrow."
The Australians are also hopeful that Starc will be able to bowl on day two after he struggled significantly in the heat. He was often seen clutching his ribs as he walked back to bowl, but Kountouris said his injury was not a side strain.
"His back was sore, he's also getting some rib pain," he said. "I haven't had a chance to fully assess that, it is not a side strain and we don't think it is anything that is going to stop him bowling but we'll have to look at it tonight. But we think he is going to be able to okay to bowl tomorrow."
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane's top temperate for the day was 35 degrees, but the humidity was also making it hard work for players from both sides. Extra drinks breaks were scheduled, but the attrition rate amongst the Australians surprised even the coach Darren Lehmann, whose previous job was as coach of the Queensland state side based at the Gabba.
"I haven't experienced that as a coach or seen it as a player," Lehmann said. "It was an eventful day … it would have been nice to have a full contingent out on the park the whole day but that's what it is sometimes in cricket. Hopefully it doesn't happen again."
Kountouris said the fact that the Australians had struggled on the first day of a five-day match would make the remaining four days of the Test challenging for them.
"Today was a tough day," Kountouris said. "But there's been a lot of tough days. Test cricket is brutally hard … The difficulty of today was it was day one. You'd probably cope with this if it was day three or day four. It makes the next four days very, very long. That's the hard part about it."
One piece of potentially good news for Australia is that Ryan Harris, who missed this Test due to a minor quadriceps strain, has a reasonable chance of playing the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Harris was commentating for Channel Nine on day one at the Gabba, and Kountouris said he would be assessed later in the match.
"Harris is a chance for the next Test," he said. "He's got a real low-grade quad strain and we need him to be bowling by the end of this Test match. If he can get to that, we'll be confident he can play the next game. It's going to be touch and go but we're hopeful he'll play."
Mitchell Starc left the field during the middle session after struggling with back and rib pain, as well as the Brisbane heat, and debutant Josh Hazlewood battled cramps that forced him from the field shortly before stumps. However, both Starc and Hazlewood are expected to be available to bowl on day two, while Marsh's injury appears the most serious.
"He's got a mild low-grade hamstring strain on his right leg," Kountouris said of Marsh. "He's had surgery on the left leg a year ago and he's also injured the right one maybe two years ago. This is a mild injury ... He's going to have a scan today and we'll try to get him on the field tomorrow and hopefully have him batting in some way if that's useful."
Marsh pulled up gingerly after delivering the final ball of his first over after lunch, and his sixth of the innings, and immediately left the field to be assessed. His history of hamstring issues is a concern. In October, he was ruled out of Australia's limited-overs games against Pakistan in the UAE after hurting his left hamstring, the same one that required surgery two years earlier.
In 2013 he picked up a hamstring injury during the Australia A tour of South Africa in July-August and aggravated it during Champions League training with the Perth Scorchers in September. The previous year he tore his hamstring tendons off the bone while diving to make his ground while batting in a one-day game for Western Australia.
Marsh's injury, which came after he finally claimed his first Test wicket in the morning session, meant a greater bowling workload for the side's other allrounder Shane Watson. The injury-prone Watson was one of the few fit members of the attack on day one and he had to complete Hazlewood's 16th over, with the second new ball, just before stumps.
Hazlewood had cramped earlier in the day but after some stretches and attention from the physio, completed his over. However, when the problem again arose two balls into a new spell he could not continue. Kountouris said he was confident that Hazlewood would be able to continue bowling after some rest on Wednesday night.
"He had cramps all over his body, so it wasn't just one place," Kountouris said. "Typically when they cramp they cramp in their calf or their hamstring or something and they tend to get on with it. The difficulty with him is he was cramping everywhere. It was both calves, both hamstrings, groins, hips, he just couldn't function.
"You could see his pace was down when he came back and bowled and he showed some courage to do that because he was really struggling. Every ball he bowled he was cramping up in multiple places. He will recover overnight and we'll see how he wakes up tomorrow. We expect him to be bowling tomorrow."
The Australians are also hopeful that Starc will be able to bowl on day two after he struggled significantly in the heat. He was often seen clutching his ribs as he walked back to bowl, but Kountouris said his injury was not a side strain.
"His back was sore, he's also getting some rib pain," he said. "I haven't had a chance to fully assess that, it is not a side strain and we don't think it is anything that is going to stop him bowling but we'll have to look at it tonight. But we think he is going to be able to okay to bowl tomorrow."
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane's top temperate for the day was 35 degrees, but the humidity was also making it hard work for players from both sides. Extra drinks breaks were scheduled, but the attrition rate amongst the Australians surprised even the coach Darren Lehmann, whose previous job was as coach of the Queensland state side based at the Gabba.
"I haven't experienced that as a coach or seen it as a player," Lehmann said. "It was an eventful day … it would have been nice to have a full contingent out on the park the whole day but that's what it is sometimes in cricket. Hopefully it doesn't happen again."
Kountouris said the fact that the Australians had struggled on the first day of a five-day match would make the remaining four days of the Test challenging for them.
"Today was a tough day," Kountouris said. "But there's been a lot of tough days. Test cricket is brutally hard … The difficulty of today was it was day one. You'd probably cope with this if it was day three or day four. It makes the next four days very, very long. That's the hard part about it."
One piece of potentially good news for Australia is that Ryan Harris, who missed this Test due to a minor quadriceps strain, has a reasonable chance of playing the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Harris was commentating for Channel Nine on day one at the Gabba, and Kountouris said he would be assessed later in the match.
"Harris is a chance for the next Test," he said. "He's got a real low-grade quad strain and we need him to be bowling by the end of this Test match. If he can get to that, we'll be confident he can play the next game. It's going to be touch and go but we're hopeful he'll play."
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