Australia hasn’t taken the wrong attack to the World Cup according to star quick Josh Hazlewood despite losing six wickets to spin in the opening loss to India and boasting just one frontline tweaker in their own outfit.
The six-wicket loss to the hosts in Chennai came on the back of the batting order being demolished by Indian spinners Ravindra Jadeja (3-28) and Kuldeep Yadav (2-42), as Australia’s frailties against slow bowling were exposed.
Conversely, Adam Zampa, the lone outright spinner in Australia’s squad after an injury to Ashton Agar, went wicketless and for 53 runs off just eight overs bowling on a surface the locals extracted mass spin from.
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But Hazlewood, who took 3-38 after he and Mitchell Starc had India reeling at 3-2 before Virat Kohli and KL Rahul easily reeled in Australia’s middling total of 201, said pace would continue to be his team’s main weapon.
He also pointed to all-rounder Glenn Maxwell’s capabilities as a spinner to balance out Australia’s bowling attack.
“I think our quicks are our strength probably upfront as we saw tonight,” Hazlewood said after the loss.
“And then I think Glenn Maxwell is a frontline spinner in particular in India. He’s bowled a lot here throughout IPL and throughout one dayers, so I consider him a frontline spinner.
“So we’ve got two spinners and three quicks as you know, a lot of the other teams do so, I don’t feel that we’re short at all.”
Australian captain Pat Cummins conceded facing spinners was “tough” but wouldn’t dwell on the loss.
“Obviously, a tough surface. It’s just one game out of nine, no need to dwell over that,” he said.
Hazlewood was adamant the dry, abrasive surface that exposed the Aussie batters in Chennai would not be the sort of wicket they would encounter elsewhere, labelling the conditions “extreme” when combined with the heat.
“I think in particular batting in that first innings, that was probably as extreme as the conditions are going to get, I think, in terms of spin and playing spin throughout the middle and trying to find ways to score,” he said.
“There’s probably a good sort of examination on our batters to get that up first, probably against the best spinners in the tournament, arguably. Hopefully, it gets a little bit easier from here on in and they’ll come up with some new plans and go from there.”
The Aussies will fly to Lucknow for matches against South Africa on Thursday and Sri Lanka on October 16.
Reserve spinner Tanveer Sangha has been kept with the squad in India and all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who was not risked in the opener following his recent hamstring injury, trained on Sunday as he closes in on a return.