IND v AUS 2020: 'Hopefully we can keep the Indians in the field for as long as possible,' says Josh Hazlewood
Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was hopeful of his side's batsmen keeping Team India in the field for as long as possible during the upcoming Test series.
Hazlewood reckons one of the main reasons Australia lost the previous Border-Gavaskar Trophy Down Under was because India was able to keep the hosts in the field for long periods of time.
This eventually led to the Aussie bowlers tiring down and its effect was seen towards the back-end of the Test series.
In the third and fourth Tests at Melbourne and Sydney respectively, the Australian bowlers were far from effective. This helped India become the first Asian team to win a Test series in Australia.
"We spent a lot of time in the field in Melbourne with short rest in between and then again in Sydney, so that, in a four-match or five-match series, that's a huge goal of batters to score runs in early games, to spend a lot of time in the middle, to get some miles and legs of the opposition bowlers," Josh Hazlewood said in the pre-series video conference.
"Hopefully we can swing that around and keep the Indian guys out there for as long as possible and reap those benefits later in the series," Josh Hazlewood added.
Cheteshwar Pujara faced a lot of balls last time and tired the bowlers out: Josh Hazlewood
Cheteshwar Pujara was the main difference between the two sides in the 2018-19 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He scored 521 runs at a brilliant average of 74.42 with three hundreds and one half-century to his name.
What was more important was that he faced a staggering 1258 balls throughout the series. This played a huge role in the Australian bowlers getting fatigued which allowed India to gain the upper hand.
"I think what you probably saw was the bowlers not getting enough rest in between innings and (Cheteshwar) Pujara faced a lot of balls and I guess in a long series, that's the batsman's goal, one to score runs and to win that Test and to keep that frontline attack out on the field for as long as possible and obviously get the benefits of that later in the series which is what exactly happened last time around," Josh Hazlewood asserted.
Pujara will play a vital role in holding the Indian batting together once again, especially in the absence of their talisman Virat Kohli. The Indian skipper will be heading back to India after the first Test at Adelaide, since he is awaiting the birth of his first child.
Josh Hazlewood and the other Australian bowlers will be aware of the fact that they need to get rid of Pujara as soon as they can in every innings, if they want to avenge their defeat from two years ago.