Will Pucovski suffers Ashes setback

A disturbing relapse of concussion symptoms has seen the batsman withdraw from Victoria’s Sheffield Shield clash, leaving him with an uphill battle to reclaim his Test place.

Will Pucovski has suffered another setback. Picture: Getty Images

The race to be fit for the Ashes is on for Tim Paine, but Will Pucovski will almost certainly not play in the first Ashes Test in Brisbane.

Pucovski was an outside chance to make the first Ashes Test, although confirmation he has been ruled out of Friday’s Sheffield Shield clash made that unlikely.

He is also expected to withdraw from the intra-Australian warm-up match, which is part of the pre-Ashes quarantine camp in Queensland.

There are plans for a third Victoria-NSW Shield game, but Victorian coach Chris Rogers said he believes time has effectively run out for Pucovski who missed the first two Tests of the Border Gavaskar trophy with concussion before making his debut in Sydney.

Paine has returned to training this week and is a chance of playing one as yet unscheduled Sheffield Shield match before going into the Queensland quarantine camp, but is assured of playing the first Test unless he has a setback in his recovery from spinal surgery.

Marcus Harris or Usman Khawaja are most likely to replace Pucovski while Alex Carey and Josh Inglis are expected to be in the camp where Australia will play a three-day warm up game.

Will Pucovski. Picture: AFP

The intra-squad match will be the only chance the World Cup squad players get to practise in a competitive environment against the red ball ahead of the Ashes.

In 2019 Australia played a similar game in Southampton ahead of Ashes selection; Cameron Bancroft elbowed out Harris and Joe Burns for an opening spot after an ­extraordinary innings on a surface where runs were a premium.

That selection did not pay off and he was dropped after the second Test and replaced by Harris.

The Australian revealed in mid October that Pucovski had lingering effects from a concussion after being struck the week before at training. He had driven himself home after the blow and developed symptoms the next day.

The brilliant young batsman is believed to have had at least 10 concussions dating back to school. He made his Test debut at the SCG against India in January but a shoulder injury ruled him out of the final match of the series.

“He hasn’t quite recovered as well as hoped for this game from the concussion,” Rogers said.

“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.

“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, five, 10 years. These are decisions we’re going to make in his best interests and hopefully we can set him up to play a long career.

“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.”

Harris had a very good winter in England and was outstanding in the second innings of his only Shield game, scoring 137 against NSW at Drummoyne Oval.

Travis Head is the in-form batsman of the Australian summer. The South Australian captain posted 163 in his first Shield game then followed it up with 230 in a 50-over match against Queensland.

Khawaja, a veteran of 44 Tests, is coming off back-to-back centuries against South Australia and Tasmania in his last two Shield ­appearances.

Victoria downplayed Pucovski’s injury when news was broken in The Australian of the batsman’s concussion from a head blow facing throwdowns in the nets.

Cricket Victoria general manager Shaun Graf announced he was “fine” and would return to training soon.

Pucovski is understood to have shown signs of recovering from the delayed symptoms but appears to have had another set back.

“No doubt there’s a lot of frustration for him. He wants to be playing,” Victoria’s coach said of Pucovski, who hasn’t played any cricket since his Test debut against India in January.

“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.

“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 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.”