Matthew Hayden has been ruled out of Australia's opening Test against the West Indies at Sabina Park after failing to recover from an Achilles injury.
The 36-year-old has hardly run over the past three weeks and such was his condition that team medical staff did not even give the Queensland opener a fitness test before declaring him out of the match starting tomorrow (Friday 1am AEST).
He will be replaced by Simon Katich at the top of the order with Brad Hodge coming in to bat at No.5 for the unavailable Michael Clarke (compassionate leave).
Vice-captain Michael Hussey admitted the loss of Hayden was a blow, but said he was confident Katich - who has opened for Australia in one-day matches and scored 97 at the top of the order in the weekend tour match - was up to the task.
"Losing Matty Hayden is a huge loss, obviously he leads our batting attack really and has quite a long time," Hussey said today.
"But there is some real stories coming in, look at Simon Katich, he was out and lost his whole contract.
"He is a vastly experienced cricketer, and while we're definitely going to miss Matthew Hayden at the top of the order, we've got an excellent replacement coming in to do a very good job for us."
While Katich returns after a 2 1/2-year absence, and Hodge after more than two years out of the Test side, wicketkeeper Brad Haddin will become Australia's 400th Test cricketer when he makes his debut following the retirement of Adam Gilchrist.
The West Indies are also without their dominant opener and skipper Chris Gayle, with Ramnaresh Sarwan to lead the side.
The Sabina Park pitch is expected to have a bit in it for both the pace and spin bowlers, with the last Test at the venue two years ago running just three days and the last draw coming more than a decade ago.
Teams:
Australia: Ricky Ponting (capt), Mike Hussey (v-c), Phil Jaques, Simon Katich, Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, Brad Haddin, Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill.
West Indies (possible): Ramnaresh Sarwan (capt), Dwayne Bravo (v-c), Devon Smith, Brenton Parchment, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ryan Hinds, Denesh Ramdin, Sulieman Benn, Jerome Taylor, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards.
