Doggett waits to become Australia’s fast-bowling debutant in 4 years as Perth Test debut looms into view.
Doggett awaits his day as Perth Test debut looms into view.
Travis Head leaned in and whispered something that made Brendan Doggett’s thoughts race last Wednesday while he was shivering in the bitterly cold Bellerive dressing room in Hobart while wearing his pads.
Doggett was anxiously awaiting the opportunity to bat. With just three wickets remaining, including Doggett, South Australia was 40 runs away from victory over Tasmania.
Head decided that was the ideal time to let Doggett know that Josh Hazlewood would “better get ready for the first Test in Perth” after suffering a hamstring injury in Sydney.
“He was winding me up a bit,” Doggett told reporters in Perth on Monday. “It’s not really what I needed at the time.”
“When Heady told me, of course your brain’s going a million miles an hour, and you’re sort of thinking what might happen.”
Doggett has not yet received confirmation, but he is expected to become Australia’s 472nd Test cricketer on Friday. Whether or whether Jake Weatherald makes his debut, he will always have that Test number.
It will be a momentous occasion for a number of cultural and cricket-related reasons. In terms of cricket, he will be Australia’s first fast bowler to play in a Test match since Scott Boland in December 2021.
“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.”