Michael Clarke came hard on Australian selectors on the exclusion of Nathan McSweeney from the test squad for the remainder of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Clarke asked tough questions from the selectors over the exclusion, stating that he should have been given a longer run.
Cricket Australia announced the team’s squad for the remainder of the two Border-Gavaskar Trophy matches and some notable additions. They brought Sam Konstas for McSweeney and added fast-bowling covers after Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of the remainder of the series.
McSweeney scored 72 runs in six innings in the series so far with 39 at Adelaide being his highest. Clarke highlighted that some senior players are also not performing but dropping McSweeney is wrong.
“Nathan McSweeney has been dropped. I can’t believe that. No matter who they picked in that opening position, they had to give them the series. I think the selectors have got this wrong. We’ve got Usman Khawaja who is 38 years old, he’s made no runs. He’s a senior player,” Clarke said on the ‘Beyond 23 Cricket’ podcast.
“You are opening the batting in Perth, day-night Test in Adelaide and the Gabba… toughest places in the world to open. He made an unreal 40 (139) in Adelaide…that will be the toughest batting conditions he will ever face in batting in his career… swing, seam, Bumrah, the number one bowler in the world, running into bowl that was his second Test match,” he added.
The former Australian skipper also stated that McSweeney is really young and all others in the team are well over 30. “We’ve got Marnus Labuschagne, who we were talking about before the series, before he made a 60. He has made no runs. Smith batted like a genius and made a hard-fought 100 here, but he’s been under pressure. Everyone apart from McSweeney is over 30 years of age, and high 30s.
“Are we going to keep giving youngsters two or three games and then try someone else and keep these older players? What happens if Usman Khawaja retires in two Test matches? Does McSweeney then come back in or does he go to the back of the queue? This could end his career,” he said.
Meanwhile, Australia’s chief selector George Baily stated that they wanted to throw something different at India for the remainder of the series. “You can say the way our top three are playing has been reasonably similar and we’d like the ability to throw something different at India off the back of that. If you look more broadly, I don’t necessarily think the top six has quite functioned to the level that we need in this series as a whole.
“Think Sam’s method, his style, is different to Nathan’s, different again to Beau’s and Josh’s as the other batting options within that team and we think they provide the options of a different look and a different make-up for the XI come Boxing Day,” Bailey said.
