Knee soreness sidelines Harris in Essex

Ryan Harris’s six-month program to be fit and firing for the coming Ashes series has struck a significant setback with the veteran paceman forced to pull out of Australia’s final pre-Test warm-up match due to knee soreness.

Harris, who underwent major surgery to his battle-scarred right knee last year but was set a lengthy rehabilitation regimen given his importance to Australia’s Ashes ambitions, pulled up sore having bowled 30 overs in two innings against Kent last week.

Live Scorecard: Australia v Essex

He bowled sparingly at Australia’s training session at Chelmsford yesterday, spending more time with bat in hand than ball, and after rolling his arm over prior to the start of today’s game it was decided not to risk him with the first Test in Cardiff a week away.

Coach Darren Lehmann said the paceman would have scans that would be sent back to Australia for assessment, the outcomes of which will be known in the ensuing 48 hours or so. 

Harris was replaced in Australia’s line-up for the Essex game by Peter Siddle, who will share the pace-bowling duties with Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

While Harris’s injury is described by team officials as nothing more serious than “soreness”, it represents a sizeable blow to the strike bowler who needs to prove his form and fitness in order to unseat one of the incumbents having missed the recent West Indies tour.

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Harris leaves the ground at Chelmsford 

Following the Kent match, coach and selector Darren Lehmann outlined the criteria under which Harris might win a recall having played his most recent Test against India at the SCG at the start of the year.

“At the end of the day, Ryan Harris has got to be fully fit and if he’s doing that then he’s a big part of our side or squad going forward,” Lehmann said.

“He’s got to prove to us he can bowl 20 overs in an innings or roughly about (he sent down 16 and 14 against Kent) and make sure he’s ready to go.”

The fact that he is unable to play in the final warm-up game would suggest, in light of Lehmann’s edict, that he will find it difficult to prove he can bowl those 20 overs unscathed until at least the next scheduled tour match against Derbyshire after the second Test.

That game – from July 23-25 – is the only tour match programmed between the start of the first Test at Cardiff (July 8) and the end of the fourth Test (August 10).

After some initial confusion at this morning’s coin toss, Australia were given first use of the Chelmsford pitch on a ‘scorching’ day (expected top of 34c) in England’s south-east.

But as was the case in Kent, Essex captain Ravi Bopara sent a clear message that the florin flipping was merely an exercise in window dressing with a pre-arranged agreement that Australia would bat first.

Bopara, the former England allrounder, commented on how he had not seen a better batting surface at Chelmsford in the recent past and given the hot conditions he had no hesitation in proclaiming Essex would bat.

“… but that’s after Australia have a bat,” he added.

With Siddle drafted in at the last minute, batsmen Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh, fast bowler Mitchell Johnson, ‘keeper Brad Haddin and spinner Fawad Ahmed were the players chosen to sit out the Essex game.

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