The door may be ajar for a Lance Morris Test debut in India, with injured Josh Hazlewood set to miss the first match of the series.

Hazlewood is struggling to overcome an Achilles injury picked up during the final Test of the Australian summer in Sydney and will join Mitchell Starc on the sidelines.

Starc is poised to return from a finger injury for the second Test, which Hazlewood is also in doubt for.

It comes as West Australian all-rounder Cam Green faces an uphill battle to be picked in the side as a pure batter, with coach Andrew McDonald labelling him only an “outside chance” to play.

Victorian Scott Boland is still considered the front-runner for what would be his first Test overseas - if Australia opt to play two seamers in a spin-heavy attack.

Morris was last week awarded the Bradman Young Cricketer of the Year award and the tearaway quick impressed during a summer touring with the Test squad.

“Scotty has bowled plenty at the MCG when it was a flat wicket, probably wasn’t swinging or reverse swinging so he knows how to work hard for a long period of time,” Hazlewood said at Australia’s training camp in Bangalore on Sunday.

“You’ve got Lance Morris who has worked hard on reverse swing for the last month and then a nice lead-in here with a few sessions.

“The guys are excited first of all to play in the subcontinent, they both haven’t yet, but they’re very well qualified to do so.”

Hazlewood, who has played just four matches in two years, revealed he sustained the injury in the Sydney Test, battling wet run-ups during a match plagued by heavy rain.

“It’s still lingering from the (Sydney) Test match,” he said.

“We obviously bowled after a lot of rain and the jump-offs were quite soft where we were taking off from and they ended up replacing them as well.

“I was bowling a fair bit leading into the tour at home and sort of just pushing up against it. It probably wasn’t recovering as well as I would have liked between each session.”

McDonald rubbished suggestions Green was still feeling discomfort, but admitted he was unlikely to play, given he had already been ruled out of bowling.

“Nothing’s really changed, we have got a fair bit to work through before the first Test match. We haven’t put a clear line through him or put him on the team sheet yet,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say he was in discomfort when he was bowling.

“One of the deliveries jarred the bottom of the bat (when he was batting in the nets) and that can create discomfort for anyone.

“There’s a little bit of awareness around that finger. He’s made some significant steps forward in the last couple of days, probably to my surprise.

“There’s still an outside chance that everything going well he might be on the team sheet.”

The loss of Green’s important overs with the ball rules all-but rules out a radical attack involving three spinners, with Australia now mulling over whether to pick a second slow bowler to partner Nathan Lyon, or bolster their depleted pace stocks.

“I think sometimes, talking about a couple of spinners, you forget how good a lot of our fast bowlers have been in all conditions, even some of the SCG wickets there hasn’t been a lot in it for quick bowlers but the quick bowlers have found a way,” captain Pat Cummins said.

“We’ve got plenty of bowling options here, finger spin, wrist spin, left-arm Starcy when he comes back. We’ll obviously pick the bowlers we think can take 20 wickets — how we’re going to split that up we’re not 100 per cent sure yet.

“That’s going to be something that we balance up, if we want to go with two spinners, do we want variation, do we want just two off-spinners?

“Obviously Travis Head is in the side as well, he bowls really good off-spin, we will see, we have got plenty of variety there to choose on — we haven’t locked in any bowling line-up so far.”

There are just four days between the first and second Tests, giving Hazlewood very little time to overcome his latest injury setback.