Australia had to make the difficult call of leaving out Scott Boland, despite his probing spells in the second Test in Adelaide for the third of the five-match series at Gabba, Brisbane. With Josh Hazlewood being fit, captain Pat Cummins confirmed that he was slotted straight into the playing XI and that was the only change for the side from their 10-wicket victory against India in the pink-ball Test.
“He’s [Hazlewood] had no hiccups,” Cummins said during the pre-match press conference on Friday, December 13. “He had a really good bowl yesterday, he had another bowl in Adelaide a couple of days previously. Him and the medical team are really confident.” Cummins mentioned that they didn’t want to take a risk with Hazlewood and when they realised during the second bowling innings of the Perth Test that something wasn’t right, they knew that they couldn’t really push the pacer.
“We’ve seen it a few times where Josh has pushed through to get through a Test match and a little bit of soreness turns into a month or two of injury.
“So we made the call then that it probably wasn’t worth the risk of keeping him bowling. I think he bowled an extra two overs leading into a tea break and he said it felt ok, but I just kind of thought from there, ‘that’s enough’,” Cummins added.
The captain felt bad for Boland as he did nothing wrong to be left out of the side and mentioned that since it is a long series, he would be very surprised if the pacer sat on the bench for the other two Tests as well.
“It’s tough. He was fantastic in Adelaide,” Cummins said of Boland. “Unfortunately he’s spent quite a bit of time on the bench over the last 18 months and whenever he plays he’s fantastic.
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“It’s a shame for Scotty, but still a fair bit to play out this series. I’d be surprised if he didn’t play again in this series.” With Boland doing well in Adelaide, there was a feeling that Australia could slot in both and Hazlewood in the playing XI but the hosts have decided to retain their combination with Mitchell Marsh being the pace-bowling all-rounder.
Australia playing XI for Gabba Test: Usman Khawaja, Nathan McSweeney, Marnus Labuschagne, Steven Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood
