Home
Former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh has slammed the George Bailey-led selection committee for insulting veteran batter Steve Smith who was in superb form the Big Bash League (BBL). Smith did not feature in the playing eleven for the must-win game against Sri Lanka despite him being the official replacement of an injured Josh Hazlewood. As Australia lost six wickets for 21 runs in slog overs which eventually contributed to their loss to co-hosts, Waugh feels that the selectors made the wrong call by leaving out Smith.
“I just think they’ve got the selections completely wrong and to have your best player by 100 yards sitting on the sideline in Steve Smith… I think it’s an insult to Steve Smith, to be honest,” Waugh told SENQ Breakfast on February 17.
Australia were missing their key players in the tournament, owing to injuries. Pat Cummins and Hazlewood were named in the initial squad but were later ruled out. Skipper Mitchell Marsh missed the first couple of group stage games due to a testicular injury he picked up in the nets. Tim David missed the first game as well as he was recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during the BBL.
ALSO READ: New Zealand bring 32-yr-old star as Michael Bracewell's replacement for rest of T20 World Cup
‘The whole campaign was doomed’
Waugh feels that Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign has been doomed from the start and the preparation wasn't great, leading to losses in a weak group. He was baffled when Smith didn't make a comeback in the squad despite good form and ability to play spin.
“I think that the whole campaign was doomed from the get-go with selection issues and injuries,” Waugh added.
“I think preparation hasn’t been great. It’s all unfolded probably the way I thought it would, even though we’re in a pretty weak group.
“I know you can’t please everybody, and sometimes there are tough calls that can go either way, but to me, the non-selection of Steve Smith in the squad originally is the most baffling non-selection I can remember for ages. I mean, here you’ve got a guy who has looked a class above everybody in the BBL.
“He’s an outstanding fieldsman. He’s a great player of spin. He should have been first picked, and he wasn’t picked in the squad… then he wasn’t even picked as a replacement, and then they’ve got him over there, and they still haven’t played him.”
Benching Renshaw stuns Waugh
In addition, Marsh left out Matt Renshaw out of the side for the game against Sri Lanka. Renshaw found form against Zimbabwe and scored a half-century in the unsuccessful run chase. He played the spin well on a tough track at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
“Then you’ve got Matt Renshaw, who looks like he’s one of the few players in form, and he’s left out of the big game last night,” Waugh said.
“T20 cricket is the hardest format to find form in. You need to pick players who are in form, because the batsman doesn’t get time to build his confidence.”
How Australia can qualify for Super 8s
Australia will now rely on a number of permutations and combinations to get a place in the Super 8. They would hope Ireland beat Zimbabwe but not by a big margin on February 17. Then, they would also want Sri Lanka to continue their unbeaten run and beat Zimbabwe on February 19. Australia's last league stage game is against Oman on February 20. Even if all the above go in their favour, they will need a big win to improve their net run rate (NRR) and advance to the Super 8.
ADVERTISEMENT
