Josh Hazlewood Opens Up Their Mindset To Handle Indian Batsmen In The Upcoming Test Series
Dec 13, 2020 at 6:57 PM
The much-awaited four-match Test series between the hosts Australia and the visitors India will begin in less than a week. Ahead of this most exciting series, Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood opened up their mindset to handle the Indian batsmen in the Test series.
Ahead of the Test series between Australia and India, while the hosts Australia won the ODI series by 2-1, the visitors India won the T20I series by the same 2-1 margin. The four-match Test series will begin on this Thursday (17th December) with the only day/night pink-ball Test match of this tour (at Adelaide Oval, Adelaide).
During India’s previous Australia tour in 2018/19 season, the visitors Indian team first time won the Test and ODI bilateral series in Australia (both series won by 2-1 margins each). While then struggling Australian team fought well in the first two Tests (lost the 1st Test by 31 runs and won the 2nd Test by 146 runs), they failed to perform competitively in the last two Tests (lost the 3rd Test by 137 runs and drew the 4th Test). Talking about this, Josh Hazlewood pointed out the lack of enough rest was one of the crucial reasons why Aussie players struggle at the end of that Test series.
Hazlewood claimed, “I think what you probably saw was the bowlers not getting enough rest in between innings and (Cheteshwar) Pujara faced a lot of balls and I guess in a long series, that’s the batsman’s goal, one to score runs and to win that Test and to keep that frontline attack out on the field for as long as possible and obviously get the benefits of that later in the series which is what exactly happened last time around.”
Cheteshwar Pujara was one of the big reasons why India won the last Test series in Australia as he batted extraordinarily in that entire series. The patient right-handed batsman scored 521 runs in that Test series and unsurprisingly won the Player of the Series award for finishing as the leading run-scorer in that Test series. The second most run-scorer in that Test series was Rishabh Pant who scored 350 runs.
Hazlewood continued, “We spent a lot of time in the field in Melbourne with short rest in between and then again in Sydney, so that, in a four-match or five-match series, that’s a huge goal of batters to score runs in early games, to spend a lot of time in the middle, to get some miles and legs of the opposition bowlers, hopefully we can swing that around and keep the Indian guys out there for as long as possible and reap those benefits later in the series.”
Josh Hazlewood about using the short balls against the Indian batsmen
Talking about their upcoming plans against the Indian batsmen during the forthcoming Test series, Hazlewood admitted that the short deliveries will definitely be an option, just like his strategy in early ODI series in the ongoing India tour of Australia.
The Aussie pacer said, “I think at different times yeah (we’ll use short deliveries). It has probably been a tactic all the time here in Australia with probably considering the bounce and pace compared to other countries and wickets tend to be flat from time to time.”
During the first warm-up game between Australia A and India, the home bowlers tested the Indian batsmen with the short balls and also added one leg-gully for Cheteshwar Pujara.
Hazlewood added, “I guess, if we are not getting results on the front-foot, we will challenge, at different times, with the bouncer with the leg-side field. I think you know that has always been a part of the game here in Australia, probably from both sides.”
After the Adelaide pink-ball Test, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane will respectively host the other three Australia vs India Tests.