Australia\u2019s poor batting has been a focal point of their shock first Test loss to Bangladesh in Darwin but coach Andrew McDonald said it would be \u201cunfair\u201d to single that area out.<\/p>\n
Five dropped catches during Bangladesh\u2019s first innings of 426 and an inability of the bowling attack, apart from paceman Josh Hazlewood, to build the same pressure the opposition\u2019s attack did were other factors in the nine-wicket thrashing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you wanted to look at our fielding, there were some catches that went down,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n
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By continuing you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn our bowling there were periods where we weren\u2019t able to potentially control it as well as we could have. I don\u2019t think we want to be that team that says, \u2018that is the exact problem\u2019, because it is always a combination of things.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are three facets of the game.To single out the batting would be unfair … but (less than) 500 runs in this game on that surface over two innings … I think we are better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n Fast bowler Scott Boland, a consistent and outstanding performer at Test level, is in the 13-man squad and is an option to come into the side for the second Test which starts in Mackay on Saturday.<\/p>\n \u201cWith Scotty we all know how good he is so we will turn up there and take a look at the pitch and work out your best bowling group,\u201d captain Pat Cummins said.<\/p>\n \u201cWith someone like Scotty in the squad you are always trying to find a way to fit him in so we will see. All the bowlers pulled up pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n Offspinner Nathan Lyon, in his first Test back from injury since he played in the Ashes in Adelaide, returned match figures of 1-125 and did not trouble the batters, but McDonald said Bangladesh should take credit for that.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he is incredibly important. They played him exceptionally well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a whole, their batting unit against our quicks played the ball late and they were very patient and disciplined and pounced when there was a scoring option when we gave too much width.<\/p>\n \u201cThere wasn\u2019t much in the surface for Nathan so it is very hard to judge a one-off sample size.\u201d<\/p>\n Allrounder Cameron Green, who made a brilliant 104 in the second innings, is the only member of the side under 30. McDonald said the age profile of the team was \u201calways going to be a conversation\u201d, particularly after a loss.<\/p>\n \u201cThese players have got a fair bit of cricket left in them, I believe. It is how we navigate through it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n McDonald said it was \u201can incredible achievement\u201d by Hazlewood to become the ninth Australian bowler to take 300 Test wickets, courtesy of his 6-89 in the first innings, after playing his first Test in more than a year due to injury.<\/p>\n Australia have been heavily criticised for a loss that ranks among their worst but McDonald said a kneejerk reaction would not happen.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it is going to be, \u2018we have lost this Test match so immediately we shift things\u2019,\u201d McDonald said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not emotional around change. If change was to be a part of it, then it would be us deciding the team would be better with someone else in there.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that goes for the bowling as well. The bowling is a little bit different in that the majority of the time (personnel change) is conditions-based and there is a physicality potentially to what they do, more so than a batting unit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s poor batting has been a focal point of their shock first Test loss to Bangladesh in Darwin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,588,85],"class_list":["post-859063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}