Will Pucovski unlikely for first Ashes Test
Nov 03, 2021
Melbourne [Australia], November 3 : Australia opening batter Will Pucovski is unlikely to be available for the first Ashes Test against England, beginning December 8 at the Gabba, Brisbane.
Victoria coach Chris Rogers on Wednesday confirmed that the opening batter will miss Victoria's upcoming Sheffield Shield clash due to concussion.
"He hasn't quite recovered as well as hoped for this game from the concussion. In discussions with the medical team and national selectors, it was felt that we'd give him a bit more time before he's selected to play for Australia," cricket.com.au quoted Pucovski as saying.
"All the people in these conversations understand we've got an immense talent on our hands and we want him to be playing in three to five to 10 years. These are the decisions we're going to make in his best interests and hopefully, we can set him up to play for a long career," he added.
Further giving an update, Rogers said: "No doubt it's a setback - I'd say now it's unlikely he'll play in the first Test. If we do play a third Shield game in mid-November, and there might be a second XI game for Victoria as well, that might prepare him for one of the matches in the middle of the Ashes series. That's the best-case scenario at the moment."
Pucovski had suffered a concussion last month during a training incident. The opening batter still continues to show concussion symptoms.
"No doubt there's a lot of frustration for him. He wants to be playing. It's an interesting one, he hasn't played for seven months so to walk straight back into the cauldron and have to perform against very good opposition, that's going to be really difficult. That would have been playing on his mind as well," said Rogers.
"I think the decision is to look after him and give him a bit more time to prepare him in the right way rather than rush him into matches that are going to have a lot of intensity and a lot of scrutiny. He's still so young and there's so much time left in in the game for him so there's no need to rush him back into a Test series, when he hasn't even played professional cricket in seven months," he added.
