John Hastings eager to lead Australia’s bowling attack
Sep 4, 2016 at 12:53 PM
The ongoing ODI series against Sri Lanka has been a massive success for the Australians. After being butchered in the test series and having several hard-hitting questions to answer, the Australians have responded in style with an ODI series win. The leadership of David Warner has been a refreshing side as the southpaw has used his resources pretty productively.
John Hastings has become an integral member of Australia’s scheme of things in ODI’s. The pacer has been quite accurate and his wickets column reflects his importance in the side. For the upcoming ODI series against South Africa, ace pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have been rested. This clearly gives an opportunity to Hastings in order to lead the attack. The pacer is pretty geared up about the same.
“If I did have a chance to lead the attack, it would be something I’ve worked towards over the last few years,” Hastings said. “I never really thought that I would get that opportunity. But now that I’ve come back and done okay, I’d really be looking to stick my hand up there and try to be that leader for some of the young bowlers.”I’d love a chance to lead the Australian cricket team’s attack. That would be a big feather in my cap,” he said.
Hastings added that adjusting to the South African pitches wouldn’t be too tedious for him. “The thing that I really do love is proving people wrong,” Hastings said. “The one thing that I don’t like is being pigeonholed into certain types of surfaces and all that sort of thing. It will be another opportunity to show that I can do it on those types of pitches.”It will be another challenge but I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to adapt quickly and use that surface to my advantage,” he added.
The pacer also opened up about his relationship with Australia’s assistant coach for the tour of South Africa, David Saker. “Saker said to me ‘you’re never going to be able to bowl as quick as all the other guys so you need to be skilful, you need to be able to bowl at the death and you need to have all the different types of deliveries’,” Hastings said. “That’s one thing I learnt from him very early on and that has helped me throughout my career. He’s very honest in his assessment of people and players.”