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Australia were comprehensively defeated by South Africa in the final of the World Test Championship (WTC). It was quite a disappointing performance from the Baggy Greens as they got outclassed by the Proteas in both the batting and bowling fronts in the all-important final.
While the bowlers did somewhat perform well, the batters had no answer to South Africa's bowling attack and thus, the reigning WTC champions were bundled out for low totals in both of their innings.
Healy wants the Australian team to improve their performance in red-ball cricket
Following the humiliating defeat, former Australia cricketer Ian Healy expressed his disappointment with the side's senior players for not stepping up in the final. He also warned the Pat Cummins-led side about the upcoming Ashes series where they will be playing five Tests on their home soil against arch-rivals England. According to the ex-wicketkeeper-batter, the visitors will be all over them during the series if they continue performing like this.
“If you limp to the end of your career and the last one you're hanging out for it's going to be a nightmare. England are coming and they're coming for us big time. They're picking the right style of bowler, they are looking at batsmen who can prosper in Australian conditions," Healy said on SEN Radio.
“They are going no specific that they are going to be all over us. If you're not all over your energy levels and your techniques, which we're not, we're going to get hurt, and you get hurt in your last series,” he added.
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Another former Australia wicketkeeper-batter, Tim Paine believes that the problem doesn't lie in the side's top-order and added that both opening batters, Usman Khawaja and Marnus Labuschagne will play important roles in the Ashes. He further predicted the duo to do well in the upcoming three-match Test series against West Indies which will commence from June 25. Notably, both Khawaja and Labuschagne haven't been in great form in the longest format and also underperformed in the WTC final.
"They're good players, they're world class. Steve Smith's (finger) injury means he won't play in the Windies first Test so Konstas comes in and Marnus drops back We have heard them say when they have the spin pitches Travis Head would slide up and Marnus down. I see them going to the Windies and playing well and getting ready for a huge Ashes series. Usman and Marnus will play really, really important roles in the Ashes. We're very quick in this country to move on players, we always want to see if the grass is greener," Paine said.
“If we have learnt nothing in the last 18 months, players of that quality are extremely hard to replace. Look at Dave Warner - one of our best cricketers - six months before he retired people said he's got to go (and now) two years down the track we still haven't replaced him. You don't just have a bad Test in England and dump people like Uz and Marnus. They are a huge part of the team for the next year at least. With England coming out here, these high quality players don't grow on trees. Great players are hard to replace," he added.
Meanwhile, the Ashes will be commencing from November 21 later this year with the first Test set to take place at the Optus stadium in Perth. The only other Test assignment that the Baggy Greens will have this year is their tour to West Indies which will begin later this month.
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