Scott Boland. (Photo Source: Philip Brown/Popperfoto/Popperfoto via Getty Images)
Australia were clinically outdone by the Indians in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 at the Optus Stadium in Perth. With this, India have taken a lead of 1-0 in the five-match Test series. The next game is a pink-ball Test in Adelaide, slated to begin from December 6. Australia have been dealt a huge blow ahead of the crucial Test as their star pacer Josh Hazlewood is injured.
Hazlewood has a side strain and Scott Boland, who is likely to be included in the playing XI in Adelaide, said that the team is not in a panic mode after a forgettable defeat in Perth. He also revealed that the hosts are doing their homework well and coming up with different plans for every Indian batter.
“There’s definitely not panic stations in our change rooms. There’s obviously going to be some chats around individual performances and everyone wants to perform really well every game they play. But yeah, it’s like, we’ve lost one game. It’s not toys out of the cot, I don’t think, said Boland as quoted by Cricbuzz.
“We’ve spoken as a team about our plans for all the different Indian batters. I won’t tell you those, but we’ve got pretty set plans. They might have a little bit of a tweak after the guys have seen them again from Perth, because obviously [Yashasvi] Jaiswal batted really well there. KL Rahul batted well in the second dig as well and really dug in. So we’ll probably have a chat over the next week and our plans might slightly change, but I’m pretty confident what we did in the first game was good,” he added.
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It is worth noting that Boland last played for Australia in 2023 during the Ashes. His performance was not worth remembering as he picked just seven wickets playing four games in the series. The Australians might be looking to replace experience with experience, and Boland’s name coming up has just added to the fervour that the Aussies have started feeling the heat.