India vs Australia: Rogers Confident That Will Pucovski Will Return From Concussion

SYDNEY: Former Australia opener Chris Rogers expressed confidence that top-order batsman Will Pucovski can bounce back from a concussion that ruled him out of the first test against India in Adelaide.

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Pucovski had been in doubt for the game starting on Thursday after he was struck in the head while batting for Australia A against the tourists last week and was ruled out for the test late on Saturday.

Rogers, the assistant coach of the A side, felt the 22-year-old would be right back in contention for the second test in Melbourne that starts on Dec. 26.

“Time is gold,” Rogers told reporters on Saturday. “Every day is going to count for him. And now he has a bit more time to prepare for (the second test in) Melbourne, that’s going to help.”

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Australian media reported that Pucovski had already suffered nine concussions, but Rogers, who also had issues with the head injury during his career, said he felt there were no fears about Pucovski’s technique and dealing with short-pitched bowling.

“I know he’s done so much work on playing the short ball and he just made a mistake. Sometimes you don’t always get it right,” Rogers added.

“But what people might not now is he played a couple of (Sheffield) Shield games and they tried to bounce him from almost the 10th over, for his whole innings, and he got two double-hundreds.

“So he has actually been playing that short ball pretty well.

“I think he has enough confidence in what he is doing, that if he had that opportunity (to play test cricket) he’d be able to go out and take on the Indian bowlers.”

Rogers added that out-of-form opener Joe Burns was aware of the pressure he was under but all he needed to do was concentrate on his game.

“There’s probably a lot of noise in his head at the moment,” Rogers said.

“But the best thing he can do is just go out and worry about the next ball.”