NAGPUR: Even though chief selector
Andrew Hilditch has ruled out Mitchell Johnson for the second ODI against India,
Australia coach Tim Nielsen is hoping against hopes that the left-arm pacer
would put behind his ankle injury and turn up for the match on
Wednesday.
Hilditch had announced this morning that Johnson is one of
the three injured players – Brett Lee and James Hopes being the other two – who
would miss Wednesday’s match with injuries.
Nielsen conceded Lee and
Hopes would sit out but sounded optimistic about Johnson’s
chances.
“Brett is certainly out of tomorrow’s game but Mitchell
Johnson’s woken up a lot better today morning than we thought he would be when
we drafted the media release yesterday evening,” said Nielsen.
“We
will see how he pulls up through the training session today and all the
indications are that he might well be available tomorrow morning,” the Aussie
coach said.
“At this stage, Mitchell is not completely out. Brett is
probably out for one and we expect Hopes to probably miss the next two games. It
is part and parcel of the game,” Nielsen added.
The Australians are
missing the services of key players Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin and Nathan
Bracken through injuries and Nielsen said the latest injuries came as a fresh
blow.
“It was a bit of a scatter-bomb yesterday. I mean I don’t
remember a team losing three bowlers in one day. It was an unusual
circumstance,” Nielsen said, adding the squad’s death bowling looks a lot less
experienced for tomorrow’s tie.
“We certainly are inexperienced in
that area. If Mitchell and Brett cannot play then we are losing about 300
matches in ODIs in terms of their experience. And we are talking about six or
seven (games) between Ben Hilfenhaus and Doug Bollinger,” he
said.
But he added the injuries have given an opportunity for the
younger players to learn from actually playing against the likes of Sachin
Tendulkar.
“The only way the young players learn or get better is
from being exposed to. You can practise all the yorkers in the net but it is so
difficult to bowl to some one like Sachin or Harbhajan Singh when they are on a
roll and the crowd going,” he said.
“You know Doug Bollinger got five
wickets against Pakistan, Hilfenhaus is learning about one day cricket all the
time and Shaun Marsh is waiting for a big opportunity. Nathan Hauritz is also
getting better and better and Peter Siddle has now been given an opportunity to
lead the attack. It helps develop depth in our team,” he said about the
positives his team can take from the injuries to key men.
Nielsen
said the wicket looked good for batting but the dew factor would make an impact
in the game, especially for the team bowling second.
“It looks like a
good wicket. And if there is dew, they will spray the outfield, may be use the
super-sopper as well during the drinks break. But yes, it will be a bit more
difficult with dew around especially for spin bowlers who will find it hard to
grip the ball.
“It will have an impact. For the team batting second,
the difficulty in chasing will be reduced a bit with dew around so the team
batting first needs to make a competitive total,” he said.
About
batting power plays and how to go about it, Nielsen said teams were still coming
to terms with it as the bowlers have started doing better in these periods of
play.
“Bowlers are bowling as lot better and batting teams are
grappling when to take it and how to approach it. The decision when to take it
becomes pretty important,” he said.
