Australia Adjusts Bowling Plans for Adelaide Test, Boland Steps In for Hazlewood

Australia is making key adjustments to their bowling strategy ahead of the upcoming day-night Test in Adelaide against India formidable top-order including openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. This move follows Australia defeat in the first Test in Perth and with Josh Hazlewood sidelined due to a side strain experienced pacer Scott Boland is set to step into the squad. Despite the changes Boland reassured that there is no panic within the Australian camp.

The injury to Hazlewood leaves a significant gap in Australia bowling attack but Boland 35 is expected to bring his wealth of experience to the team particularly with his precise line and length against India in-form batters.

We’ve had discussions as a team about our plans for the Indian batters but I won’t go into details. We have a solid strategy in place and there may be minor tweaks after assessing them again from Perth Boland said following the rain-affected practice match in Canberra against the Australian Prime Minister XI.

Despite Australia loss in the opening Test Boland assured the team remains calm. He emphasized that there is no panic in the dressing room and while individual performances are being analyzed there no cause for major concern.

There definitely no panic stations in our change rooms. Sure there’ll be talks around individual performances but everyone wants to perform well every game. It just one loss he added.

India top-order particularly Jaiswal and Rahul impressed in the Perth Test with Jaiswal scoring 161 runs and Rahul contributing 77 setting a record 201-run opening partnership. Their performance along with Virat Kohli 30th Test century proved difficult for the Australian bowlers to contain.

Boland acknowledged the strong showing from India openers noting Jaiswal batted really well and KL Rahul dug in during the second innings. We’ll have discussions on our plans over the next week but I’m confident in what we did in the first game.

The Australian pace attack consisting of Pat Cummins Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood struggled to stem the flow of runs in India second innings. Boland offered an explanation stating that the key difference was the longer break Indian bowlers had between innings compared to their Australian counterparts.

Our bowlers bowled well but the Indian bowlers had a longer break between their innings while we didn’t get as much time to rest he explained.

Boland return to the squad comes after a diligent off-season rehabilitation process. He stressed that he took a cautious approach to ensure his body was ready for international cricket again without rushing his recovery.

I worked really hard in the off-season to get my body to a place where I’m confident I can perform again for Australia. I didn’t want to rush and risk re-injury so we took it slow with my rehab Boland shared.

With Hazlewood absence Boland experience will be vital as Australia looks to bounce back and take on India in the high-stakes Adelaide Test.