On track to become Australia’s first fast-bowling debutant for four years in wake of Hazlewood injury
Alex Malcolm17-Nov-20252:17
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Last Wednesday, Brendan Doggett was shivering in a freezing cold Bellerive dressing room in Hobart with his pads on when Travis Head leaned in and said something that sent his mind racing.Doggett was nervously waiting to bat. South Australia were 40 runs from victory against Tasmania with only three wickets in hand, one of which was Doggett.Head decided that was the perfect moment to inform Doggett that Josh Hazlewood had injured his hamstring in Sydney and that he’d “better get ready for the first Test in Perth”.”He was winding me up a bit,” Doggett told reporters in Perth on Monday. “It’s not really what I needed at the time.”Related
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“When Heady told me, of course your brain’s going a million miles an hour, and you’re sort of thinking what might happen.”It hasn’t been confirmed to Doggett yet, but what is likely to happen on Friday is he will become Australia’s 472nd Test cricketer. He will have that Test number for life, regardless of whether Jake Weatherald also debuts.It will be a significant moment for several reasons, both cricketing and cultural. On the cricket front, he will be the first fast bowler to make his Test debut for Australia since Scott Boland in December 2021.Such has been the durability of Australia’s big three in Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Hazlewood, Boland has been the only replacement needed since December 2022, which was the last time Cummins and Hazlewood missed a Test together in a SENA country. Remarkably, Boland has never played a Test in Perth, with Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood playing all five Tests together at Perth’s Optus Stadium between 2018 and 2024.The last time two of the big three did not play in Australia, it was Michael Neser who played alongside Boland, having debuted one Test before Boland did in the 2021-22 Ashes. But Neser was not initially named in Australia’s squad for Perth and has only been added since both Hazlewood and Sean Abbott were ruled out. He was not even in Perth when Australia trained for the first time on Monday. Doggett is all but certain to play barring injury.Brendan Doggett looks set for a debut in Perth•Getty Images
Despite being careful not to make any assumptions, Doggett is well aware of the large shoes he is likely to have to try and fill on Friday, providing some dry humour when asked what he does differently to them.”I probably don’t take as many wickets as them,” Doggett joked. “They’re tall quicks. They get a lot of bounce. I’m obviously just a little bit skiddier, but try and move the ball off the wicket both ways and try to swing the ball away from a right-hander.”I try and emulate them as much as I can. Hopefully a little bit of a point of difference for me might help. But we’ll wait and see.”This is the doomsday scenario Australia’s hierarchy had hoped to hold off until after the Ashes. The age of their big four has been well documented. Item one on the agenda of the annual planning meetings back in May between the coaching, medical and sports science staff was how to keep those four fit through to the end of the Ashes.Two have fallen over at the start and the unknowns around Australia’s pace bowling depth will be unveiled in Perth. But it may only be a one-off.The sight of Pat Cummins steaming in and bowling a sublime spell in blistering 34 degree heat on the juicy Perth Stadium nets raised eyebrows among all who saw it.He got through eight overs with ease, backing up the eight overs he bowled in Sydney last week, making every Australian batter he bowled to look uncomfortable with hostile pace, nip and bounce. It fulfilled the prophecy of coach Andrew McDonald, who had said weeks ago on record to journalists that they will see Cummins bowl in Perth and wonder why he’s not playing.Brisbane is a distinct possibility for the skipper. Hazlewood will likely need longer to recover from his hamstring strain. But Doggett has earned his chance.Doggett took 5 for 66 in last week’s contest in Hobart•Getty Images
At 31, with 50 first-class games to his name, he’s in the form of his life. In his last 13 matches dating back to October last year he has 63 wickets at 20.12, striking at 38.6, for South Australia, Australia A and Durham. In those 13 matches he has claimed seven five-wicket hauls, four of which have been six-fors, including two bags in his only two Shield games this summer since returning from a minor hamstring injury.”I don’t know how ready you can be for Test cricket, I guess,” Doggett said. “But the last 18 months to two years for me has easily been the most successful I’ve been in terms of numbers, but also just confidence in my body, confidence in my game.”Boland is a nice blueprint for Doggett to follow. Boland had toiled in first-class cricket for a decade before stepping seamlessly into Test cricket.”Obviously you don’t want to be missing two great players like Josh and Pat,” Boland said on Monday. “But I think our bowling stocks have been really strong for quite a while, but no one’s been able to break in with the resilience, with Starcy, Pat, Josh and myself.”It’s going to be exciting time, because a new guy or two will get a look in.”But they’re not inexperienced guys. Like Brendan’s coming in. He’s 31 years old. He’s played a lot of first-class cricket.”I think he brings real skill. He’s a fast outswing bowler, and he’s someone who can bowl really long spells. Bowls a lot of overs when he’s playing for South Australia. He’s someone who’s tremendously fit, and if he gets the nod it’ll be exciting to see him play.”It will be a significant cultural moment too in Australian cricket. In 2018, Boland and Doggett opened the bowling together for an Aboriginal XI that celebrated the 150th anniversary of an Australian indigenous tour to England in 1868.Australia has only had two men with indigenous heritage play Test cricket, in Boland and Jason Gillespie. On Friday, indigenous Australians will have two representatives in the same men’s XI.”It’ll obviously be really special for him and his family and the Australian Indigenous community,” Boland said.”I think this gives a real pathway. They can see that there’s two guys playing, and hopefully they want to take that step into playing cricket.”