Australia's in-form batter Travis Head has dismissed speculations of rift in the dressing room which were rife after Josh Hazlewood's comments in the media during Perth Test. Head said that there is "no bad blood" between the players and they stand strong after the 295-run loss in the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25 opener.
“Batters want to hold our own … we know how good our bowlers have been in the past,” Head said as quoted by news.com.au.
“Knowing that if I can set it up for the big boys, they can knock it down for us, so definitely no bad blood.
“I feel like this team has dealt with adversity well, with the small amount that we’ve had in the last three or four years.
“We’ve had some challenging times, we had a couple of challenging Tests last year that we were able to get ourselves out of.
“Our heads aren’t in the clouds, we understand a few Tests last year we understand could’ve gone either way.”
Who will replace Hazlewood in Adelaide Test?
After Hazlewood was ruled out of the second Test due to injury, Scott Boland is expected to fill his place in the Adelaide Test. However, Boland remained wicketless in the rain-curtailed 46 overs per side pink-ball warm-up game between Prime Minister's XI against India. He bowled 10 overs and conceded 36 runs. Head backed Boland to come good in the Adelaide Test where Hazlewood bagged five wickets for 8 runs bowling out India for 36 on their last tour.
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Meanwhile, two uncapped pacers -- Brendan Doggett and Sean Abbott -- have been added to the Australian side. Doggett who is yet to make his debut at the international stage bagged six wickets for just 15 runs against India A. In the last three games for South Australia in the ongoing Sheffield Sheild 2024-25, he has claimed 10 wickets as well. On the other hand, Abbott has 13 wickets from last two games for New South Wales in Australia's premier domestic competition.