Australia's legendary wicketkeeper-batter Ian Healy is not mincing words while criticising players from either sides. After triggering West Indies pacer Shamar Joseph with "you've delivered crap all year" comment, Healy has criticised Australia's batting coach Micahel Di Venuto for batters "regressing" performances in Test format. He made the comments after Australia batters struggled against Caribbean pacers in the first Test in the absence of an injured Steve Smith.
"I love to put it back onto the players more than coaches usually. But, as I said, Australian cricket’s batting head coach – and every state batting coach – should be under pressure because there’s not enough runs being scored around the nation either," Healy said on SEN.
"Michael Di Venuto – a friend of mine who is a good coach and a good man – has held the job since mid-2021. In this time, our national team batting has regressed in performance at the Test level," he added.
Healy wants 'sound techniques' from batters
Australia's top order has not been in best of form. Young Sam Konstas is facing flak already after getting out to Shamar twice. Cameron Green's promotion at no.3 has not produced results either. While Marnus Labuschagne sits on the sidelines, Green is yet to prove his mettle since return to the side after injury. He wants Di Venuto to work on their techniques.
"All that’s important to me is the performance. ‘I don’t care how you do it or what will make it easier for you – just get it done. They’re not making it easy for themselves at all, players have got to deal better with nerves by the sound of it," said Healy.
"They need to create sound techniques and bat with balance so you can make really sound decisions ball after ball for long periods. At the moment, we’re failing many of these points, and the lower order is having to deal with it – either recovering the score or losing. It’s just too hard at the moment, we’ve got to clear those minds of our top order," he added.
Changes in playing XI?
Despite the top order collapses, Australia won the opening Test by 159 runs. The second Test is scheduled to start on July 3 in Grenada. It will e interesting to see if Australia make any changes to the playing XI.