Pat Cummins said on Monday insisted that any changes to Australia’s squad for their second Test against India in 11 days time would be ‘unlikely’.
But after their 295-run defeat by India, the Australian captain claimed that ‘conversations’ would be had this week.
Coming into the Border-Gavaskar series, questions had loomed over who Australia could look to deploy to open the batting against India.
Nathan McSweeney was the chosen man, with the 25-year-old thrust into his Test debut this weekend alongside Usman Khawaja at the top of the batting order.
Behind the pair came Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith, two experienced batters who will leave Perth with some questions hanging over their performances.
Labuschagne and Smith both failed to score over 20 runs each across both of Australia’s innings, with the latter being dismissed for no runs in the first innings.
Fears have been mounting that a ‘divide’ might be starting to appear among Australia’s players
It came after the Baggy Greens were swept away by India during the first Test, with India winning by 295 runs
Despite a crazy opening day that had 17 wickets, Australia’s bowlers also struggled to take wickets on Day Three. India would take a 522-run lead at the close of play on Sunday, with Virat Kohli breaking his long wait for a century, while Yashasvi Jaiswal went on to hit an impressive 161.
As Cummins says, Australia will need to take stock of their performance this weekend and come back fighting in Adelaide.
But it appears a few issues among the players could be starting to develop behind the scenes, with fast bowler Josh Hazelwood making a rather revealing claim during the first Test.
When asked for his verdict on how the Test had gone, Hazelwood said: ‘You’ll have to ask the batters that question, I’m sort of relaxing and getting a bit of physio treatment and probably looking mostly to the next Test and what plans we can do against these batters.’
His comments got Fox Cricket pundits Adam Gilchrist, Michael Vaughan and David Warner speculating over what’s going on back-stage.
Giving his verdict, Gilchrist said: ‘That to me tells me there is potentially a divided changeroom.
‘I don’t know if that’s the case, I might be reading too much into that.’
Former England captain Michael Vaughan added: ‘I must admit I’m staggered by that. Publicly I’ve never heard an Australian come out and divide the camp into batters and bowlers.
Josh Hazelwood sparked speculation for his comments over the weekend when giving his verdict on how the Test had gone
Hazelwood (right) said to reporters: ‘You’ll have to ask the batters that question, I’m sort of relaxing’ before adding he was ‘looking to the next Test’
Adam Gilchrist (left) claimed that his statement made it seem like there was a ‘division’ in the Aussie changing room
‘There’s 11 batters, that’ll never change. Every single player has to come out and bat.
‘I’ve been in many teams and we get it. When the batters are going well and they’re not getting the wicket, you go: “Come on bowlers”. And when the batters are batting like Australia are at the minute, the bowlers say: ‘”Come on batters give us a little bit more time”.’
Former India star Ravi Shastri claimed that Hazelwood’s comments could be telling that cracks could be appearing in the Australian squad.
‘What the Indian dressing room will be thinking when they hear something like that, we know there are cracks on the pitch but I feel there are some mental cracks as well at this moment in time in the opposition,’ he said to Fox Cricket.
‘Having come to Australia for 30-40 years, I think this is the first time an Indian team is feeling that: “You know what, we are better than the opposition in their backyard”.’
For Smith, his long wait for a Test century will go on, with his last century coming against England at Lords back in June 2023.
Labuschagne has had to also wait a similar length of time for his next century, with his most recent ton coming at Old Trafford in July of that year.
Cummins, meanwhile, understood that some pressure has been weighing on Australia’s batters, including Labuschagne, who was dismissed on Sunday afternoon for lbw, after flailing at a delivery from Jasprit Bumrah.
Questions have been mounting over the form of experienced batter Steve Smith after he scored just 17 runs during both innings
Marnus Labuschagne is also in the spotlight after he was dismissed on Sunday afternoon, scoring just five runs across both innings
Cummins has insisted that it is unlikely Australia will make changes to their starting XI in Adelaide
‘Marn, along with quite a few guys in the team, didn’t have the week that we would have wanted,” Cummins said to Fox Sports.
‘It’s no secret how hard the batters, particularly Marn, work in the nets; he’s always trying to find those small, marginal gains.
‘This week there will be a lot of conversation with the coaches around his approach and what he could be doing differently. We know he’s a class player — him at his best is one of the scariest propositions for opposition bowlers to bowl at.
‘This week will be about those conversations, we’ll get to Adelaide a little bit earlier, maybe do an extra day or two prep leading into that second Test.
‘He’s done it before over here, he’s got a very good pink-ball record.’
David Warner, though, snubbed claims that there was a divide in the team.
‘As a senior player, you’ve probably got a duty of care when you’re representing the rest of the team to have something the batters would want to get across,’ the ex-Australia opener said.
‘All the batters are thinking about going there and batting. There’s not a lot of runs in that changeroom at the moment. To have support from a bowler, yes it was a long day, those comments probably weren’t warranted.
‘I don’t think there’s a divide in there … after a long day you can come off and start pointing fingers but I don’t think there’s a divide in that changeroom.’
