Australia not panicking after Perth loss to India, concedes Boland
Ahead of the Pink-Ball Test starting next week, Australia pacer Scott Boland shared that the hosts are raring to have a go in Adelaide.
Scott Boland believes despite the scoreline of the defeat in the first Test against India, Australia didn’t do much wrong on the field.
The 35-year-old pacer, who missed out on making the cut for the playing XI in Perth, is now among the top contenders as a replacement for Josh Hazlewood, who was ruled out of the next Test owing to a 'low grade left side injury.'
Hazlewood ruled out of Adelaide Test
Speaking ahead of the second Test against India in Adelaide, Boland shared that the Aussie dressing room atmosphere is still on the up.
“There's definitely not panic stations in our change rooms,” Boland said on Saturday, 30 November.
“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.”
Furthermore, Boland added that not much that the hosts did in the Border-Gavaskar series needed improving, and that it was a strong stand between the Indian openers in the second innings which shifted the balance in the visiting side’s favor.
“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.”
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Boland, who has featured in 10 Tests so far, averages an excellent 20.3 and has 35 wickets to his name in Australian whites.
The late bloomer, who made his Test debut at the age 32, believes the Adelaide Oval as a venue is an ideal pick for a Day-Night Test.
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"Usually there can be two different games in the one game," he said. "You can bowl during the day when the sun's out and it doesn't do a whole lot, and then you get to the night session and the ball starts moving around a bit.
"I think it's been a couple of instances where the ball hasn't dominated the bat. I think maybe last year at the Gabba we took the new ball and didn't get as many wickets as what we would have hoped in that night session.
"But now back to Adelaide, I think they produce a really good cricket wicket that really suits the pink ball and helps it last a bit longer because it does get a little bit softer after 30, 40 overs compared to a red ball."