Quantcast

Hobart horrors no more for batters

Australia's last trip to Hobart for a Test saw four of their top seven batsmen dropped, but Travis Head doesn't believe the pitch still carries the same demons

Australia's batters believe the horrors of Hobart are a thing of the past as they prepare to make their first return there since the 2016 disaster.

Friday's fifth Vodafone Ashes Test at Blundstone Arena will mark the first there since the loss to South Africa five years ago, where four of the top seven batters were immediately axed.

Only David Warner, Steve Smith and Usman Khawaja remain in Australia's top seven from their first-innings score of 85, as the hosts were all out in just 32.5 overs.

The Bellerive venue has traditionally been one of the hardest to bat on in Australia, with only the MCG lower scoring of all regular Test grounds in the country this century.

It has also remained a bowler's ground in the Sheffield Shield since the 2016 collapse.

Batters have averaged 27.82 at the venue in the past five seasons, down on the competition average of 31.32.

But Travis Head insisted that could mean nothing come Friday's Test, with a score of 192 to his name in Hobart in March 2016.

"Shield cricket is going to be a lot different to Test cricket," Head said.

"You look at the Gabba and it's probably a more bowler-friendly wicket (in Shield) compared to Test cricket where it's a beautiful place to bat.

"I'm expecting Hobart to maybe be a bit similar to that.

"We see day three and four at Bundstone can be really really nice to bat. Some big scores get chased down.

"We've seen a couple of Shield finals (over five days) there where the wicket has been very good for batting."

Also factored into Head's thinking was the difficulty bowlers had taking wickets with the pink ball during the day in Adelaide.

While it remained a threat at night, bowlers struggled to move the Kookaburra in daylight hours with England in particular battling with the issue.

Head is yet to play a day-night first-class match at Blundstone Arena, but they have traditionally been higher scoring than red-ball affairs there.

Australia also remain undefeated in pink-ball Tests, taking their record to 8-0 earlier this summer.

"It doesn't change too much, the way I'll go about it," Head said.

"We'll get the stats, go through the footage over the next few days. And then we'll have an idea of leading into training on what we should do to best prepare.

"What I'm expecting: Not dissimilar to every other pink ball we've played with.

"The ball will swing in stages, the ball will be great to bat with in stages."

Vodafone Men's Ashes

Squads

Australia: Pat Cummins (c), Steve Smith (vc), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Nic Maddinson, Michael Neser, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner

England: Joe Root (c), James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow, Dom Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler, Zak Crawley, Haseeb Hameed, Dan Lawrence, Jack Leach, Dawid Malan, Craig Overton, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robinson, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Schedule

First Test: Australia won by nine wickets

Second Test: Australia won by 275 runs

Third Test: Australia won by an innings and 14 runs

Fourth Test: Match drawn

Fifth Test: January 14-18, Blundstone Arena