“Those comments probably weren’t warranted, [but] I don’t think there is a divide,” Warner said. “In the England team, Broady [Stuart Broad] or Jimmy [Anderson] might have come off after a long day and you can start pointing fingers, but I don’t think there is a divide.”
However, Vaughan was stronger on the issue and expressed his surprise at Hazlewood’s remarks.
“I must admit, I’m staggered by that,” Vaughan said on Fox Cricket.
“Josh Hazlewood is a great bowler, terrific team member. Publicly, I’ve never heard an Australian come out and kind of divide the camp into batters and bowlers.
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“There’s 11 batters. That will never change. Every single player has to bat. There’s two days to go in the Test match. It’s a long shot, a huge shot for Australia to get anything out of this game, but to publicly see a player basically saying, ‘I’m thinking about the next game’ before this game is finished [is surprising].
“I’ve never, ever seen that from an Australian player. Any player, really, around the globe.”
Former India coach Shastri said Hazlewood’s comments suggested “mental cracks” have opened up in the Australian team.
“What the Indian dressing room will be thinking when they hear something like that is we know there are some cracks on the pitch, but there are some mental cracks as well in the opposition,” Shastri said.
“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’re better than the opposition in their own backyard. I don’t think an Indian team has ever thought that way.”
In the history of Test cricket, Australia’s top four has never made fewer runs in a match. The 29 runs made by McSweeney, Usman Khawaja, Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Pat Cummins (nightwatchman in second innings) is worse than the 38 made by Australia’s top four across both innings of a 1888 Test in Manchester.
India’s second-innings total was the highest score by a visiting team in Australia since 2019.
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