Hazlewood return headlines key questions for Aussie Tests
The Australian Test cricket team returns on home soil on Thursday, facing Bangladesh in a two-game series to be played in Darwin and Cairns.
It begins what is a marathon run of Test cricket for the Aussies, with a tour of South Africa to follow before a home summer against New Zealand, into a full tour of India, before the centenary Test against England in March leading into an Ashes tour of England in June.
Josh Hazlewood has barely played Test cricket across the last two years. AP
Despite the hectic schedule, Australia has picked a full-strength squad to face Bangladesh, clearly in the hopes of solving a few unanswered questions before things pick up heading towards the summer.
Chief among those questions is the make-up of the bowling attack. Josh Hazlewood has barely played red-ball cricket in two years, while Pat Cummins only managed one Ashes Test as he battled a back injury.
Both have been named to face Bangladesh and appear ready to return to their best, but selecting both will likely come at the expense of Scott Boland, who has proven he is as good as any bowler in the world at his best.
The Aussie attack is ageing. Every bowler is in their mid-to-late 30s at this point, including Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. How they manage that group and what the first-choice quartet looks like remains to be seen. Michael Neser will miss the Bangladesh series through injury.
Leading cricket journalist Robert Craddock believes Hazlewood is ready to reclaim his spot in the XI.
“People in England are rolling their eyes at Australia picking a full-strength team to play Bangladesh, but right now you’ve got to have a roll call,” Craddock told SEN on Monday.
“Josh Hazlewood has barely played in two years, Pat Cummins has played one Test in a year. Right now you’ve got to see everyone’s best and make changes later.
“Josh Hazlewood looks light to me, which I’m enjoying watching. He’s had a bad couple of years with injury. He looks good.
“He’s going to play in the IPL between the test series’, he told us, because he said if he’s not bowling over there he’s just going to be bowling at Allan Border Field.
“I sense he might be just in front of Scott Boland, but it’s an interesting call. The pecking order feels slightly blurred.”
The batting line-up has been a raging question mark for the Aussies for multiple years now. Despite that, they’ve managed to cobble together a sufficient line-up to this point.
That becomes more complicated now with Usman Khawaja joining David Warner in retirement. Steve Smith will want to bat forever, but he will be 38 come the next Ashes series as well.
Marnus Labuschagne hasn’t made a Test hundred in a full three years, but will once again be relied up to bat at No.3 and hold the top order together.
Jake Weatherald retains his position as opener alongside Travis Head, one of the few locked in pieces, but the Darwin local’s position is far from settled, despite a lack of batting depth banging the door down.
Cameron Green’s spot as the primary all-rounder has clearly been usurped by Beau Webster, but both will likely face Bangladesh. Coach Andrew McDonald will be desperate for the former to find some decent form.
Australia will be hoping that these matches against Bangladesh provide answers to some lingering questions, or, at the very least, a sugar-hit of form that can carry them through to South Africa.
Bangladesh are excited about the challenge of facing a fully-fledged Australian Test side. Their captain Najmul Hossain Shanto told reporters they’re used to opposition teams resting stars against them.
“Normally, I have never seen anything like this before in Bangladesh cricket. When teams play against us, there are usually a lot of experiments. I would say this is an achievement for our team,” Shanto said.
His team has the chance to send a lightning bolt through the Australian camp in Darwin, with the first Test beginning on Thursday.
Bangladesh was bowled out for just 54 in the second innings of their match against a Cricket Australia invitational XI over the weekend and lost the match by an innings.
South Australian 22-year-old Campbell Thompson took 8-25.
