Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood has been ruled out f the current series due to hamstring injury in the Perth Test and coach Justin Langer is looking at the possible replacement of the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand. The speedster has suffered a “low-grade hamstring tear” during the night session on day two at Perth. Langer said that it’s not yet decided that who would play between James Pattinson and Michael Neser, the two reserve fast bowlers.

“Without doubt, ‘Patto’ (Pattinson) and Michael Neser, they’ll be in the squad 100 per cent and we’ll look whether we replace Josh with another fast bowler,” he told Cricket.com.au. “The obvious one would be Peter Siddle actually. He did a really good job in the Ashes, he’s bowling very well for Victoria and it’s at the MCG where he’s played a lot of cricket.

“We’ll see what happens the rest of this game and then make a decision. Anyone who knows Patto, you’ve never seen energy like it. He’s got the drive. He’s said after his back surgery he’ll do anything to play Test cricket again. It’s a real credit he’s got back to that. Being a Boxing Day Test he’ll be jumping out of skin to play,” he added.

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Justin Langer has also given a hint at bringing back Mitchell Marsh into the squad.

“He (Marsh) played the last Test at The Oval and we know how good he is,” Langer said. “We’ve just got to wait and see. He’s back up and running, he’s not bowled much so he’ll have to get his bowling loads up and we’ll see what happens. There’s a lot of talk about allrounders but the truth is, whether it’s a club side, T20 side, Shield side, they all want an allrounder but there aren’t many of them around.”