Australia pacer Josh Hazlewood feels the visitors might find it hard to have a replacement for the “class-bowler” for the rest of the Test series.
India pacer Mohammad Shami retired hurt while batting in the second innings at the Adelaide Oval after he was hit on the right arm. Shami’s injury has put his participation in the Boxing Day Test in doubt. After the match, India skipper Virat Kohli said the bowler was in a lot of pain. Hazlewood, who turned the third afternoon of the pink-ball Test into a nightmare for the Indian batsmen, said Australia too wants to know the extent of Shami’s injury.
“It’s obviously a blow, we gonna see how bad it was. He will undergo scans to see if there is any fracture or bruising. We wanna find out how much damage is done,” Hazlewood said during the virtual post-match press conference.
“He is a class-bowler and he showed this in the game. So India might have to dig deeper in their arsenal to try and cover and him but we probably expect him to play, I am not sure how bad the injury is,” he added.
India had claimed the advantage on day two after dismissing the Australian top-order, but skipper Tim Paine fought hard and added 80 runs with the tail.
“The partnership last night was hugely important, we were seven down and then last three wickets to put on 80 runs hugely important in a low scoring game. Paine batted beautifully with the tail and few of our guys chipped in here and there,” said Hazlewood.
After India was bundled out on 36 on day three, Joe Burns smashed a career-saving unbeaten 51 and Matthew Wade hit 33 as the duo put on 70 for the opening wicket to extinguish any hopes India had of staging a fightback.
“For Joe Burns, I think it was a perfect scenario today chasing a low score, so it freed him up and India had set attacking field so there were plenty of gaps, so he got on a roll and get the confidence back. We always have faith in him and we want to give him a long run as possible,” said Hazlewood.
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