It would be hard to make an argument that the best four bowlers in Australia are anyone but Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon. All four are in Australia’s top 10 Test wicket-takers, the first two closing on 300 scalps and the latter two comfortably past it. Collectively, their tally is 1443.
Since they first combined in the 2017-18 Ashes they have played 31 Tests together, by far an international record for any frontline quartet. Even with injuries and changed configurations in touring conditions, that makes almost half of Australia’s 64 Tests in that period, including 23 of 36 at home.
And that includes the last nine Tests hosting India, across three series. Mitchell Marsh is the only other Australian bowler in those matches to take an Indian wicket. But in a country where India struggled for decades, against an all-time bowling attack, Australia have won two of those nine Tests. Five losses, two draws, which equals two series to India along with a 1-0 lead in the third.
It’s a strange one. This season’s loss at Perth can be blamed on the batting and there are others in this sequence where the specialists didn’t give their bowlers enough rest. Some of the bowling numbers across these matches are outstanding: Hazlewood with 35 wickets at 22, Cummins 38 at 25. Even in the losses and draws they have held their averages in the 20s. Starc and Lyon are more the issue, averaging 38 and 39 respectively, and both up to almost 47 in the matches Australia didn’t win.
But despite the good numbers, this is still the attack that conceded 447 bowling first on Boxing Day in 2018, and 622 bowling first in Sydney the next match. The attack that couldn’t bowl out India on the fifth day in the following series, drawing in Sydney and coughing up a huge chase in Brisbane. Even in Perth this year, the first-innings workload was light and had an overnight break before the second shift, one that conceded 487 for 6. Whatever the mitigation in any of these, the upshot is that this attack doesn’t hold many fears for the visitors.
So, perversely, could it help Australia that their first choice isn’t available given Hazlewood’s injury before the second Test in Adelaide? On the numbers, Hazlewood is the worst option to lose – but might any change at least disrupt India with an option they’re less accustomed to seeing? That’s both in Test cricket and in the IPL, where Australia’s three quicks spend significant time.
Scott Boland has that low profile, despite having taken apart India in their losing World Test Championship chase last year in London. The other pace options available to selectors before they named Boland in the team for Adelaide – Brendan Doggett and Sean Abbott – have never played a Test. Any of them would be enough of a wildcard to disturb India’s rhythm, rather than settling in against a known threat.
But there’s one other twist. Of Australia’s meagre two wins out of nine, one was at Adelaide in the only previous day-night Test of the sequence. This week’s game will be the second. Starc and Lyon have the less flattering figures in those nine matches, but they have played every pink-ball Test that Australia has staged. They are the top two wicket-takers in this variation on the format, while Hazlewood and Cummins are third and fourth. Last time the pink ball featured, Australia bowled out India for 36. While there just might be an argument for disrupting the quad, this is the worst Test of the five for it to happen.
And in the end it won’t matter which bowlers Australia use if their team can’t make a score. India are facing the problem of how to squeeze some run-makers back into their batting order, Australia the problem of how to squeeze some runs out of theirs. Rohit Sharma will return to captain India. KL Rahul will stay in the team as an opener. Shubman Gill is likely to be back at first drop.
Meanwhile, Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, under pressure after their Perth showing, were batting aggressively in the Adelaide nets two days out, smashing their offside shots except when Smith was edging a net bowler’s in-swingers into his middle stump. “Again!” he exclaimed the second time. “The pink ball!” Australia will have to hope it swings to their advantage.
