KOHLI-WOBBLES
Hazlewood claims India batting line-up could suffer from the ...
AUSTRALIAN vice-captain Josh Hazlewood has thrown down the gauntlet to India’s batsmen to prove they’re not a one-man band.
Led by the world’s most feared run-maker Virat Kohli (left), India comes into this hotly anticipated series as favourites to break a 71-year-old drought and win on Australian soil for the very first time.
Kohli is a headline act capable of almost anything on the cricket field, but Australian pace leader Hazlewood has put the microscope on the King’s support cast ahead of Thursday’s first Test start in Adelaide.
India have come up short in recent overseas tours against South Africa and England, and Hazlewood says Kohli is the only man that’s stood up to be counted on those big occasions.
Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay both had excellent tours down under back in 2014, and Rahane is in fact one of the few road warriors in international cricket who boasts a better batting average away than he does at home.
However, overall India’s record on foreign shores makes for bleak reading.
Kohli’s record in Australia is nothing short of astounding with five hundreds at an average of 62, but none of those incredible individual performances have resulted in victory and Hazlewood has put the heat on the rest of the Indian top order.
“They’ve played a lot at home since we played them last in Australia,” said Hazlewood.
“They toured England and South Africa and it was only Virat who stood out. A lot of the others haven’t scored too many of the runs.
“These wickets are different again. It’s about weighing that up and seeing what we get in the middle.”
No.3 anchor Cheteshwar Pujara averages just 33.50 in Australia with zero hundreds to his name, while opener Lokesh Rahul and veteran Rohit Sharma have also struggled with averages either side of the 30 mark.
On similar pitches in South Africa at the start of this year, every recognised batsman with the exception of Kohli (47.66) and Rahane (28.50) averaged in the mid-teens.
In England when the ball was seaming around, Kohli lifted again and averaged 59, but Pujara’s single hundred was about the only other support he received.
The work Australia’s bowlers are putting into their plans to Kohli is about as exhaustive as it gets.
When the two sides faced-off in Australia four years ago, Kohli averaged over 160. Last year when the Border-Gavaskar trophy played out in the subcontinent, the Australians suffocated Kohli and he averaged just 9 with a highest score of 15.
Hazlewood said those same plans won’t necessarily work and Australia’s approach needed to be multi-layered with back-up options and wildcards at every turn – and a willingness to leak runs if necessary.
“We’ll obviously have a chat about him before the game starts. We’ll come up with a couple of options,” he said.
“It depends on what conditions we get and what wickets. With a player of that calibre you need a few options. He’s one of those guys who can score pretty freely … but sometimes those risks bring the most rewards as well.
“It’s just about weighing that up and assessing how long we stay at each plan for.”
Hazlewood said he and pace allies Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins are at peak fitness and won’t get sucked into antagonising a batsman who relishes confrontation.