Aussie paceman Josh Hazlewood wants India to prove it’s not just a one-man band in coming Test series
Australian vice-captain Josh Hazlewood wants Virat Kohli’s fellow batsmen to prove they are not totally reliant on world’s most feared run-maker in the hotly anticipated Test series.
Cricket
Don't miss out on the headlines from Cricket. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australian vice-captain Josh Hazlewood has thrown down the gauntlet to India’s batsmen to prove they are not a one-man band.
Led by the world’s most feared run-maker Virat Kohli, India come into the hotly anticipated series as favourites to break a 71-year drought and win on Australian soil for the very first time.
VISITORS UP CLOSE: INDIA MORE THAN JUST KING KOHI
POWER: EX-COACH BUCHANAN SEEKS SHOCK CA RETURN
BHOGLE: VIRAT KOHLI ‘WILL GO TO WAR WITH HIS TEAM’
BALL MANAGEMENT: UNWANTED SPOTLIGHT ON AUSSIE PAIR
Kohli is a headline act who is capable of almost anything on the cricket field, but Australian pace leader Hazlewood has ut the microscope on the King’s support cast ahead of Thursday’s first Test in Adelaide.
India have come up short in recent overseas tours against South Africa and England, and Hazlewood said Kohli was the only man who stood up to be counted on those big occasions.
Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay both had excellent tours Down Under in 2014, and Rahane is in fact one of the few road warriors in international cricket who has a better batting average away than he does at home.
However, overall India’s record on foreign shores makes for bleak reading.
Kohli’s record in Australia is nothing short of astounding.
He has five hundreds at an average of 62, but none of those incredible individual performances have resulted in victory and Hazlewood has put the heat on the rest of the Indian top order.
LISTEN: The first Test side, Alyssa Healy from our all-conquering women’s team and a deep dive into the super talented India squad features on this week’s episode of Cricket Unfiltered.
“They have played a lot at home since we played them last in Australia,” Hazlewood said.
“They toured England and South Africa and it was only Virat who stood out. A lot of the others haven’t scored too many of the runs.
“These wickets are different again. It’s about weighing that up and seeing what we get in the middle.”
No. 3 anchor Cheteshwar Pujara averages just 33.50 in Australia with zero hundreds to his name, while opener Lokesh Rahul and veteran Rohit Sharma have also struggled with averages either side of 30.
On similar pitches in South Africa at the start of this year, every recognised batsman with the exception of Kohli (47.66) and Rahane (28.50) averaged in the mid-teens.
In England when the ball was seaming around, Kohli lifted again and averaged 59, but Pujara’s single hundred was about the only other support he received.
The work Australia’s bowlers are putting into their plans for Kohli is about as exhaustive as it gets.
When the two sides faced off in Australia four years ago, Kohli averaged more than 160. Last year when the Border-Gavaskar trophy played out in the subcontinent, the Australians suffocated Kohli and he averaged just nine, with a high score of 15.
Hazlewood said those same plans wouldn’t necessarily work and Australia’s approach needed to be multi-layered, with back-up options and a willingness to leak runs if necessary.
“We’ll have a chat about him before the game starts,” he said.
“We’ll come up with a couple of options. It depends on what conditions we get and what wickets. With a player of that calibre you need a few options.
“He’s one of those guys who can score pretty freely … but sometimes those risks bring the most rewards.
“It’s just about weighing that up and assessing how long we stay at each plan for.
“It’s about adapting once we’re on the field.”
Hazlewood said he and pace allies Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins were at peak fitness and wouldn’t get sucked into antagonising a batsman who relished confrontation.
“Virat thrives on that stuff,” he said.
“It gets him going and he probably plays his best cricket when he’s doing that. I think we (fast bowlers) have pretty much peaked at exactly the right time. We’ve played a number of games of cricket.
“We feel 100 per cent.”
Every Test, ODI, T20I, and BBL match live. SIGN UP NOW!
Originally published as Aussie paceman Josh Hazlewood wants India to prove it’s not just a one-man band in coming Test series
‘It sucks’: What selectors told snubbed Handscomb
Peter Handscomb thought he was probably going to be in Sri Lanka at the end of the month. All the signs were pointing that way. Then came the phone call which shattered the Victorian star.
Rain, wind, causes chaos at SCG as BBL’s Sydney Smash abandoned
It was the match-up every cricket fan wated to see, as Steve Smith led the Sixers into battle against Dave Warner’s Thunder, but rain and heavy wind caused chaos at the SCG, forcing the Sydney Smash to be abandoned.