Captain Pat Cummins had suggested on Sunday following Australia’s huge 10-wicket win over India in Adelaide that Josh Hazlewood “is on track and will be right for Brisbane”. The 33-year-old, on his part, sent down two spells in an intense bowling session at the Adelaide Oval on Monday, complementing the Australia skipper’s views.
If Hazlewood is declared fit for the third Test at the Gabba in Brisbane beginning on Saturday, it certainly will be a big positive for Australia after their wonderful bounce-back following a 295-run drubbing in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy opener in Perth.
At present, there’s obviously a pretty good chance of Hazlewood returning for the third Test, although the pacer prefers to keep his fingers crossed.
“I think it’ll be how I pull up in the coming moments. It’s just that repetitive action and obviously, two spells make a big difference.
“Cooling down pretty much fully and then going again on the same day, and the intensity has got to be right up there as well. So a few boxes to tick, but it’s probably the 24 hours that follow and pulling up again the next day and then thinking ‘Yeah, I’d be right to go again if I had to’,” Hazlewood, a vital cog in Australia’s bowling attack, told reporters in Adelaide.
At the same time, selection dilemma is one aspect Australia may have to deal with once Hazlewood gets the green light for Brisbane. Scott Boland, who came in Hazlewood’s place as he missed the Adelaide Test because of a side strain, came up with a handy contribution in the pink-ball day-night game with a match-haul of five wickets.
Importantly, Boland struck at crucial periods in both innings of the Test and together with that, most in India’s batting group, including heavyweights like Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma, struggle against the length that he bowls and find it tough to gauge which way the ball could move.
However, with Hazlewood’s return, Boland will have to make way. Though the Gabba pitch tends to be pace-friendly, it’s unlikely Australia will go in with an all-pace attack and risk making it one-dimensional.
“If someone needs to make way (for Hazlewood), he’ll be pretty unlucky,” Cummins had said.
Hazlewood, though, stated that he would have gone ahead and played with discomfort in Adelaide if the Test was to be the last of the Australian summer. But doing so could well have sidelined him again for a lengthy period.
“If this (Adelaide) was the last Test of the summer, I could have potentially run the gauntlet and played. I think I would have been in a pretty bad state by the end of the game, even though it was only a short game, but it just wasn’t quite right,” Hazlewood said.
