Doubts have been cast over the “togetherness” of the Australian Test team following comments from seamer Josh Hazlewood that suggested there’s a divide in the playing group.
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Australia lost three quick wickets to close out yesterday’s play, and still trail by 522 to pull off an incredibly unlikely victory at Perth Stadium.
Speaking after a tough day three spent largely in the field as the Indian batsmen hit the red Kookaburra ball to all corners, Hazlewood was asked what his team’s approach is from here.
“You probably have to ask one of the batters that question probably, I’m sort of relaxing and trying to get a bit of treatment and I’m looking mostly to next Test,” Hazlewood said.
Aussie Test legend Adam Gilchrist then questioned whether there was a “divide” in Andrew McDonald’s team between the batsmen and bowlers.
“I think as a senior player you have a duty of care when you’re representing the team to have something the batters want to get across, all the batters are thinking about going out and batting,” David Warner replied.
“There’s not a lot of runs in that changeroom at the moment, but to have the support from a senior bowler, those comments probably weren’t warranted.
“I don’t think there’s a divide in there, you probably see in great teams as well you could come off after a long day and start pointing fingers, but I don’t think there’s a divide.”
But for former England Test captain Michael Vaughan, Hazlewood’s comments did prove there was tensions within the team.
“Publicly, I’ve never heard an Australian come out and divide the camp into batters and bowlers,” Vaughan said.
“There’s 11 batters, that will never change, every player has to bat. There’s two days to go in the Test match, it’s a long shot for Australia to get anything out of this game.
“But to publicly see a player say basically I’m thinking about the next game before this game is finished, I’ve been in many teams and I get it.
“You do get the batters and you do get the bowlers… but you can see there’s a bit of grumpiness there, but to publicly come out and say that, I have never seen that from an Australian.
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“Any player around the globe, but particularly an Australian… I always look at the small details in every team… the togetherness and the lack of spirit in the outfield, you don’t say that often about Australia.”
Meanwhile, Indian legend Ravi Shastri delivered a damning claim, explaining he believes the visitors have the upper hand mentally.
“What the Indian dressing room are thinking when they hear something like that, they know there’s some cracks on the pitch but there’s some mental cracks as well,” Shastri said.
“Having come to Australia for 30 or 40 years, this is the first time an Indian team is feeling, ‘you know what, we are better than the opposition in their own backyard’.
“Quietly they will be thinking ‘we will have to lose it here’.”
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