Hazlewood van mystery solved after Gabba ‘drama’ as Aussie XI firms for third Test — Test Daily

Josh Hazlewood looks a likely starter for the third Test after a mysterious Gabba exit was explained.

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Hazlewood was hoping to prove his fitness after missing the Adelaide Test due to a side strain, with the green Gabba wicket looking favourable to the bowlers.

After rain earlier in the week forced them indoors at Allan Border Field, Thursday was due to be Australia’s main training session at the Gabba.

But Hazlewood didn’t bowl a ball in public, with Code Sports’ Daniel Cherny tweeting on Thursday evening: “Drama at the Gabba.

“Josh Hazlewood has just been whisked off in a van with Mitchell Starc and bowling coach Daniel Vettori.”

Nine News showed Starc jokingly pulling a hat over his face to cover it as the group left the Gabba.

But Cricket Australia later explained the pair were heading to Allan Border Field so they could bowl off their full run-ups, joined by spare batsman Josh Inglis and Queensland Bulls player Lachlan Hearne in the nets.

Having gotten through a 45-minute session in the Queensland heat, as long as Hazlewood pulls up well he appears a certainty to replace Scott Boland in an otherwise unchanged Aussie XI.

BUMRAH INJURY FEARS

On Tuesday question marks remained surrounding the fitness of star Indian opening bowler Jasprit Bumrah ahead of Saturday’s blockbuster third test in Brisbane.

The superstar bowler, who is the current leading wicker-taker in the series with 12 wickets at 11.25, missed Tuesday’s training session along with fellow Indian opener Mohammed Siraj, who copped a fine of 20 per cent of his match fee (roughly $16,500) for a heated on-field exchange with Travis Head.

Bumrah, who received medical assistance from the team physio during his 20th over in Australia’s first innings with what appeared to be an upper leg injury before his bowling speeds went down thereafter, on Tuesday spent time with India’s strength and conditioning coach away from the main group.

India assistant coach Morne Morkel said Bumrah was simply dealing with cramp, with all eyes to be on the 31-year old quick at Thursday’s main training session as doubts surround his availability.

“There’s got to be some serious doubts,” former Australian pacer Damien Fleming said of Bumrah’s fitness on SEN Radio.

“Siraj might be workload (related) but I’m bemused Bumrah bowled that over. They could have hid this. They showed their hand.

“There’s no way that’s cramp. He was very ginger after the break in the first innings. He bowled again, not quite as slow second innings. I don’t even know why he bowled that over (in the second innings). That actually gave some secrets away to everyone.”

GILLY PRAISES AGGRESSIVE CUMMINS

Cricket legend Adam Gilchrist has declared the Australian side are back to their best on the back of controlled aggression from captain Pat Cummins.

Remarkably, Australia’s three quicks took all 20 wickets in their victory over India in the second Test while spinner Nathan Lyon bowled just one over in the match.

Gilchrist believes Cummins’ side were “stung” following the criticism that came with their humbling 295-run loss in the series opener in Perth.

But the skipper bounced back in style and took seven wickets in Adelaide, including a 5fer in the second innings as he ripped through the Indian attack.

“You could see just through his celebrations that… every wicket that he took he was more aggressive in his celebration,” Gilchrist said on Fox Cricket’s The Follow-on podcast. s

“Not in that lose control extent but you could just see that clearly they’d been stung by a bit of criticism around after their performance (in Perth) and they internally would have been so disappointed with the way they played in Perth.

“So it (Adelaide celebrations ) showed you what it meant to them and they knew that they were back at the level they want to play their cricket.

“Cummins was outstanding, he looked like if there needed a bit of a grease and oil change after Perth and a tune up, he was purring by the end of it, so that was terrific to watch.

“They were just a unit, the three bowlers, Nathan Lyon only had one over (in the match) and Mitch Marsh four, but other than that the big three, Starc, Bold, Cummins hunted as a pack and bowled as a unit and that was really fun to watch.”

BOXING DAY SOLD OUT

The first day of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India at the Melbourne Cricket Ground has sold out, with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series equally poised at 1-1.

The MCG will be heaving and the chances of a record crowd will come down to how many MCC members turn up on December 26.

This strong demand comes after record crowds flocked to Adelaide Oval to see Australia level the series.

The total attendance of 135,012 in three days in Adelaide exceeded the previous record of 113,009 for a Test against India, which was set over five days in 2014-15.

The single day attendance record for a Test against India in Adelaide was also smashed both on day one and two respectively, with 50,186 and 51,642 at the ground – the third and fifth highest attendance for any day of Test cricket at Adelaide Oval.

WARNER NOT CONVINCED

David Warner is “not convinced” that Marnus Labuschagne has overcome his form issues despite the Australian number three’s impressive innings in Adelaide.

Labuschagne scored a much-needed half-century after baring the wrath of the Australian public and media following scores of two and three in the series opener at Perth’s Optus Stadium.

He was averaging 13.66 in his five most recent Tests before the pink ball spectacle at the Adelaide Oval, but Labuschagne defied his critics with a knock of 64 that crucially included making it to stumps on night one alongside Nathan McSweeney.

Labuschagne and his protege doing the hard yards under lights set the platform for Travis Head to smash the Indians to all parts of day two with his swashbuckling century, but Warner did not think his former teammate was at his best.

The Queenslander was caught at gully after slashing at a ball from Nitish Kumar Reddy that was too close to his body to cut, and Warner found his dismissal to be of little surprise as he was tempting fate throughout his innings.

“I’m still not convinced with Marnus. I don’t think that was anywhere near what we know he’s capable of,” Warner said.

“He might have got a couple out of the middle, got a couple of freebies, batted well that night to get through but they bowled poorly.

“So from that perspective, he had the best conditions to come out and bat in. But he got out the same way he always does get out when he gets over 50, hits it straight to gully.

“So there’s a lack of awareness there of what he’s got to be mindful of. I don’t think he’s anywhere near where he should be.”

Meanwhile, Fox Cricket’s Adam Gilchrist was full of praise for the way Labuschagne approached batting on the first evening when talking on The Follow-On podcast.

The legendary wicket-keeper batter was particularly impressed by his positive intent in defence, and while he admitted that Labuschagne’s dismissal was “reasonably soft”, Gilchrist believes that he has laid the foundations for more runs in the series.

“Simple things when you defend, if you’re immediately looking to size up whether there is a single or not, I might be wrong but in Perth it seemed he was so focused on being rock solid in defence that you lose the intent in that action,” Gilchrist said.

“You might then miss and opportunity to pinch a quick single, and get yourself off strike and not get bogged down.

“Everything he did (in Adelaide) was really positive and looked like he had the right intent.

“He would have been extremely disappointed to give up his wicket the way he did in the end, in what turned out to be a reasonably soft manner.

“The fact that he spent some time at the crease, started accumulating runs and had that really important partnership with McSweeney, I think, has set Marnus back on the right track. Now, it is his job to replicate that over and over.”

Since Labuschagne’s last Test century, in the second innings at Old Trafford during last year’s Ashes series, he has been dismissed in the 60s three times, and was also out for 90 against New Zealand in Christchurch.

He has only scored one another fifty in that time, an unbeaten 62 against Pakistan in Sydney, but the issues with conversion have been far from Labuschagne’s biggest problem.

In the 19 Test innings he has played since the Manchester rearguard that helped Australia cling on for a draw before rain washed away the final day’s play, Labuschagne is averaging 24.47.

That number is why the Australian public, as well as members of the media, were riding him hard, but intriguingly, Labuschagne’s average in 2024 of 28.09, is superior to fellow top order batters Usman Khawaja (25.66) and Steve Smith (23.20).

But Warner is not as concerned about the veterans as he is about Labuschagne.

“Steve, of late, I think a lot of teams have been bowling at his pads and down leg side,” Warner said.

“So I think from that perspective they’re trying to shut his scoring down quite a bit. You see he’s trying to tinker with fixing certain things with Bumrah. His feet weren’t moving across this time.

“We know what Steve’s like, one knock and then he’s there. But as we know, the best form of currency is runs so you’ve just got to try your best to churn them out.

“‘Uz’, exactly the same. He’s had a great 12 months before. But then of late he hasn’t scored as many runs as he would have liked, but same things, you’ve just got to go out there and still present the same attitude, the same at training, keep working hard.”

The pink-ball certainly caused headaches for the likes of Smith and Khawaja, as well as the Indian top order in Adelaide, and Warner suggested that because day/night Tests are played so differently to red-ball contests, that the statistics from those games should be separated.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma made just three and six in first match of the series as he was trapped in front by Scott Boland and knocked over by a peach from his opposite number, Pat Cummins.

The low scores brought Sharma’s average for the year down to 27.13, but Warner believes batters should not be punished for being undone in the more bowler-friendly conditions.

“It’s a pink-ball game. When I look at the pink ball, the ball swings, it’s completely different. It’s always one of those games that I’ve looked at on the calendar as, it should have its own stats,” Warner said.

“At the end of the day, not everyone plays pink ball.”

SHASTRI: INDIA SHOULD NOT ‘HOLD BACK ONE BIT’

Indian great Ravi Shastri has called for Rohit Sharma’s side to fight fire with fire after some heated exchanges during Australia’s 10-wicket victory in Adelaide.

There was none more talked about than Mohammad Siraj’s clash with Travis Head after knocking over India’s World Test Championship Final and ODI World Cup Final nemesis for 140.

Head’s home crowd were always going to turn Siraj into public enemy number one, and Shastri wants to see more drama like it.

In fact, he encouraged the fire and brimstone when he masterminded India’s triumphs on Australian shores during their last two tours, when he was head coach.

“I’m sure Siraj and Head are mature individuals who will deal with it and the dust would have settled already,” Shastri wrote in a column for CODE Sports.

“If anything, I wouldn’t have expected anything else from a fast bowler after he’d been hit for a six. Siraj was letting off some steam. That’s the fast bowler’s temperament. You want it to be like that.

“When I was playing, my philosophy was to give it back as good as you get. And it’s exactly what I would tell my players when I was coaching India in Australia. Do not hold back one bit.

“Do not take even one backward step. It then became the team’s philosophy and everyone from Virat Kohli to Rishabh Pant and every member of the squad was prepared to give it back to the Aussies.”

Shastri also wants to see a change of approach from India with the bat in the third Test, starting Saturday.

Sharma missed Indian’s win in Perth due to the birth of his second child, and returned to the line-up in Adelaide at number six.

The middle order is where the dashing right-hander has been stationed for almost half the 65 Test matches he has played, but in 2019 he made the move to the top, where he bats in white-ball cricket, and 9 of his 12 Test centuries have come after taking on the new ball.

“What I’d like to see in Brisbane is for the captain to return to the top of the order. Opening the batting is where Rohit belongs,” Shastri said.

“They might have tried having him in the middle in Adelaide but they have to immediately go back on that plan and instead push KL Rahul down the order.

“You need Rohit setting the tempo at the top. That’s his best position.”