India vs Australia: Australia batting prodigy Will Pucovski has deactivated his Twitter account to stay off the hype ahead of a potential debut in the upcoming high-profile Test series against India starting next month.
The opening batsman has been earmarked as the next big thing in Australian cricket and thanks to his surreal form in the domestic first-class competition Sheffield Shield, he has generated quite a buzz. In two innings, Pucovski struck successive double-centuries following which he was included in the hosts’ 17-man Test squad for the four-match series against India.
“It’s a bit of a media build-up to be honest, the big bat-off thing,” the 22-year-old told reporters on Friday. “All I can really control is how I go about it in my preparation and then obviously in the game so I feel like my batting’s in a really good place. I’m off a lot of social media, so that makes it a lot easier. You can’t get tagged on Twitter and stuff if you don’t have the app, so that’s been a pretty easy one for me.”
However, Australia head coach Justin Langer has cleared despite Pucovski’s form, incumbent opener Joe Burns will continue to partner David Warner at the top,
“He’s been amazing, hasn’t he?” Langer had said of Pucovski on Friday. “That said … we loved the combination of Joe Burns and David Warner. At this point, I’d say that will remain the same.”
Pucovksi has been in the reckoning for some time now but has been struggling with concussion injuries that date back to a serious hit he took during school football.
“Obviously getting hit in the head a lot is not ideal from a physical or mental perspective,” Pucovski said. “But I’ve done a lot of work in that space to try and make sure my process is in a really good place.”
India’s tour of Australia gets underway from November 27 when the first of the three ODIs will be played followed by as many T20Is. The Test series is scheduled to get underway from December 17 with the first contest being a day-night affair in Adelaide.