‘Might awaken a sleeping giant’ - Josh Hazlewood on India’s humiliating series whitewash to New Zealand

New Zealand handed India their first Test whitewash at home in 24 years in the recently concluded three-match series. The host batters struggled to establish authority and mostly fell prey to spinners, resulting in a clean sweep. Ahead of the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25, the series defeat is extremely concerning, as the Rohit Sharma-led side is running the risk of not making it to the World Test Championship finale.

India will have to beat Australia 4-0 in the series to guarantee their place in the summit clash. On the other hand, Australia are eager to beat India in a Test series for the first time since the 2014-15 season. Reflecting on the situation, especially after India’s defeat to New Zealand, pacer Josh Hazlewood stated that it might motivate the visitors to play better cricket but he’s also happy that their confidence took a hit following defeat to the BlackCaps.

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“It might awaken a sleeping giant, so to speak. We’ll see that when they come out. It’s better (of) them losing 3-0 than winning 3-0, easily. The confidence might have taken a bit of a hit. A lot of them have been out here, but there are a few batters who haven’t, so they’ll be a bit unsure of what to expect. I don’t think you can read too much into it. The results are obviously good for us in a way,” Hazlewood told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Scott Boland reflects on BGT 2024-25

Hazlewood’s teammate Scott Boland talked about India’s success in Australia on the last couple of occasions but believes that the conditions will be different this time around as he expects more bounce.

“I think the conditions are so different. Obviously, the last couple of times India’s come to Australia, they’ve done really well. Yeah, there’s so much more bounce here. I think the way they’ll structure up their team (might) be completely different to what you see over in India,” Boland said.