Peter Handscomb Loses 4.5 KG While Batting In Chittagong
The sight of Peter Handscomb battling the sweltering heat of Chittagong on day 2 of the ongoing second Test against Bangladesh brought back the horrific memories of the 1986 Test match when former Australia batsman Dean Jones was drenched in sweat and vomited in the famous tied Test at Madras en-route to his epic double century.
Well, Handscomb’s condition was not that bad but the Australian batsman was not looking in good condition either in the hot and humid condition. With the temperature being in low 30s, Handscomb was clearly struggling, but he put up the brave side of his personality and scored a brilliant 69 off 113 balls at the end of the day to put his team into a commanding position. However, the 26-year old paid a big price for bailing his team out of the trouble in the sweltering heat as he lost an unbelievable 4.5 kilograms of his body weight during his knock which head coach Darren Lehmann called ‘gutsy’.
He took several breaks in the hostile weather and at one time it looked like he would fail to continue. When batting on 64, he hunched over and needed medical attention. But fortunately, he resumed batting and remained unbeaten on 64 as Australia finished the day on a commanding 225 for 2.
Handscomb is going to stay out there to finish off the day. Just a few overs remaining on day two.
Hard work out in the middle #BANvAUS pic.twitter.com/rFUVoBYw65
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) September 5, 2017
Speaking at the end of day’s play, Lehmann praised the batsman for his brave knock.
“Really gutsy, Obviously it was pretty hot out there, and we saw that yesterday. You have to work really hard for your runs so, to get through in the way they played, was excellent. They’re in the ice baths now. We’ll leave it with the medical team to get them right for tomorrow (Day Three) but a very special day and, hopefully, tomorrow they can kick on,” Lehmann said.
Steve Smith & Co., meanwhile, need to win this ongoing Test to level the two-Test series after losing the opener at Dhaka by 20 runs.
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Peter Handscomb
