India vs Australia | 'Aggressive' Dressing Room Discussion Blown Out of Proportion: Hazlewood

Cricketnext Staff | Updated: January 7, 2019, 8:33 AM IST

Australian vice-captain Josh Hazlewood said that the "aggressive" dressing-room discussion between assistant coach David Saker and the bowlers after the first day of Sydney Test has been blown out of proportion.

Saker had revealed that an "aggressive" and "animated" debrief took place behind closed doors after the way bowlers performed and allowed India to end day one at 303 for 4.

"Yeah, absolutely," Hazlewood said on cricket.com.au's Facebook Live when asked if Saker's comments had been overblown.

"We always have a chat pretty much every night or the next morning. It wasn't really different to normal.

"The bowlers know when they haven't done their best and you don't really have to point it out. We know, we've played enough cricket and we'll try to get better as we go along."

Australian skipper Tim Paine too had played down the animosity of the meeting, while former captain Ricky Ponting wasn't disappointed with "things being spoken publicly".

India lead the series 2-1 and are on the verge of creating history. The right-arm paceman said the bowling group has failed to execute the plans, largely because of India's immovable object at No.3, Cheteshwar Pujara.

"I think they've been the right plans we just haven't stuck at them long enough," Hazlewood said.

"It's the No.1 batting lineup in the world and they've proved that this series. But I think if you ask any of the four main bowlers they could have been better at certain stages.

"They've probably outlasted us in a lot of areas: patience, probably discipline.

"(Cheteshwar) Pujara is the main one who has broken the back of us early on in each game. The other batters have cashed in on that."

The pace trio of Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins is set to the miss the forthcoming three-match ODI series against India to freshen up for two Tests against Sri Lanka.

The trio will have only 10 ODIs before Australia pick their squad for the World Cup but Hazlewood thinks that's enough to prepare for the mega-event.

"I think it’s the right decision," Hazlewood said when asked about missing the India ODIs.

"We've obviously got two more Tests, which is a bit unusual for an Australian summer after the Sydney Test.

"Freshen up, look forward to that and there is still quite a few one-dayers after that before the World Cup to work on our one-day format."