New Delhi: Former India batting great Sunil Gavaskar while highlighting the flaws of the Australian selectors has said that instead of pointing fingers at players, the role of the selectors should be questioned.
The ex-cricketers have been extremely critical of the current Australian side for their batting woes. Australia legend Allan Border has lashed out at Steve Smith, who passed a thumbs-up gesture to the bowler after a ball beat his outside edge. While former Australia opener Matthew Hayden also slammed the team for their lackluster show in the opening match of the series.
“While the ex-Australian players on the various media platforms are having a real go at their players, the ones who should be the real targets are the Australian selectors,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
Gavaskar also cited the example of Josh Hazlewood, who was ruled out of the first Test due to an Achilles injury and Mitchell Starc, who was part of the playing XI in the third Test in Indore and said why the selectors picked Hazlewood, Starc, and Cameron Green in the squad when they knew they would not be available for the first two Tests.
“How can they pick three players (Hazlewood, Starc, and Cameron Green) who they knew would not be available for selection for the first two Test matches? That is, for half the series, the team management had only 13 players to pick from.
“Then they fly in a newcomer (Matthew Kuhnemann) when they had a similar player already in the team. If they didn’t think the player in the team was good enough, why did they pick him in the first place?
“That meant the team management was picking their 11 from 12 players. Ridiculous. If they have any sense of responsibility the selectors should resign even if Australia make a stunning comeback and win the next two Tests and level the series,” wrote Gavaskar.
IANS