Bangladesh will face Australia at Marrara Cricket Ground in Darwin. The venue will host its first Test match after 22 years. Australian fast bowler Josh Hazlewood said it is quite a refreshing challenge and noted that there are many unknowns.
“There’s a lot of unknowns going in. You’ve got the ground, that’s an unknown. The wicket in particular is an unknown, as is the opposition in these conditions. So there are a lot of unknowns, but I think it’s exciting.
“There’s definitely footage and we can find some trends against these batters, but it might be a case of assessing things out there and coming up with plans on the run as well, which is always refreshing,” he said on the Unplayable Podcast on Thursday.
The Australian Test summer usually tends to start in late November in either Perth or Brisbane. Hazlewood would predict that, as it is a non-season Test match, it might not behave the usual way.
“I’m not sure what to expect regarding the conditions. It’s not going to be Perth Stadium on day one, or the Gabba. I don’t think it will be that typical Australian Test pitch where the quicks are super effective in terms of seam movement, swing and bounce, but it could be more similar to Bangladeshi conditions in terms of low bounce.”
“It’s a pretty simple plan for Test cricket. It’s just execution, and it’s execution for a long period of time. Things might change a little bit out there as the day goes on or the game goes on, but in general, it’s a pretty simple game plan a lot of the time.
“You have time to adapt out there. You might be halfway through your first spell and think, ‘Oh, let’s try this, let’s try that’. In T20 cricket, you don’t have that time. If you’re a touch off, it’s six,” he added.