Hazlewood edges Boland as Australia reunite ‘big three’ for 1st Bangladesh Test

Darwin, Aug 12 (IANS) Australia will begin their Test summer with Josh Hazlewood back in the XI, leaving Scott Boland as the notable omission for their series opener against Bangladesh.

Pat Cummins confirmed the combination on the eve of Australia’s first Test at the venue in 20 years, with Hazlewood joining Cummins and Mitchell Starc to restore a pace trio that has not played together for more than a year.

Nathan Lyon also returned after recovering from the hamstring injury that curtailed his Ashes campaign.

Boland’s absence is a harsh reward for a bowler who was one of Australia’s most dependable performers last summer. He played every Test of the Ashes as injuries disrupted Australia’s bowling group, but the competition for places has intensified with Cummins, Hazlewood and Lyon now fit.

“They’re both pretty class, aren’t they? We were pretty certain we wanted ‘Lyono’ in the side, so (it came down to) working out what the make-up of the quicks were. It’s always a pretty tight call. It’s one of those ones where there’s not much you can say to Scotty other than obviously there’s a lot of cricket coming up. But he knows his worth and how good he is. I’m sure he’ll be out there at some point pretty soon,” Cummins said on the selection between Hazlewood and Boland, as quoted by cricket.com.au.

The selection also signals a shift in Australia’s batting order. Cameron Green moves up to No. 5, while wicketkeeper Alex Carey remains at No.6 and Beau Webster occupies the No.7 allrounder’s position. Carey had been considered for a promotion following Usman Khawaja’s retirement, but Australia have opted to preserve a combination that worked during the Ashes.

“‘Kez’ has won a few games for us at number six. We like that combination of him and Webster at six, seven. We feel like Greeny’s a good number five – you can try and get funky, but we thought that’s kind of how the team will function the best. Pretty good problem to have when someone like Kez could bat even higher than he is,” the Aussie skipper added.

The Darwin surface remains something of an unknown, with limited first-class cricket played at Marrara Stadium. Australia A’s match against Sri Lanka A last year is the only first-class fixture there in two decades, while pace bowlers found considerably more success than spinners.

Australia will therefore head into the opening Test without a clear blueprint for conditions. Bangladesh are expected to have two experienced spinners in Mahedi Hasan and Taijul Islam, who together bring more than 500 Test wickets.

“Just felt it there – looks and feels hard. There was an A game out here last year, and it was a pretty good batting wicket … don’t know (what) to expect,” Cummins noted.

Australia XI: Jake Weatherald, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Cameron Green, Alex Carey, Beau Webster, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

–IANS

vi/bc