Legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne has heavily criticized the Australian coach Darren Lehmann and selector Mark Waugh for their decision of keeping the opener Aaron Finch and the fast-bowler John Hastings out of the playing XI at various junctures during the tournament.
"Our selection was wrong ... we messed around with it too much rather than sticking with what's been a proven formula," Warne said, according to a report in the Canberra Times. The leg-spinner added, “Because we had so much talent in our team and so much skill, they [the selectors] thought 'it doesn't matter what the combinations are we're still going to do OK."
Australia crashed out of the tournament after a loss to India in their last Super 10 encounter at the PCA stadium in Mohali. Virat Kohli’s sublime 82 dethroned Australia’s hopes of qualifying for the semifinal.
The opening combo of Warner and Finch shouldn’t have been broken
Aaron Finch, who was the number 1 ranked batsman in the ICC T20 Rankings before Virat Kohli toppled him recently, was dropped for the matches against New Zealand and Pakistan with the selectors preferring Usman Khawaja over him. Australia broke the opening combination of Warner and Finch in those matches and preferred Khawaja and Shane Watson at the top. Warner was dropped down to the middle order in those games and the move certainly didn’t pay off as Warner failed to score big.
Finch was also the captain of the Australian T20I team before Steven Smith replaced him before the world cup. Finch and Warner opened the batting for Australia in several T20Is and ODIs and recorded a partnership of 187 in an ODI against India in 2016.
The spin-wizard didn’t quite understand the logic of breaking the fearsome opening combo of Warner and Finch and said that it upset the balance of the team. According to him, they have been batting together for a long time and they have done exceptionally well in the limited-overs cricket and their big-hitting prowess is an intimidating factor for the opposition. Warne feels these two are more destructive than Usman Khawaja who opened for Australia in the world cup.
According to Warne, had he picked the side he would have batted Khawaja at number 3 given his rich vein of form. The leggie also pointed out that John Hastings should have been played in the crucial knock-out games against Pakistan and India instead of Josh Hazlewood as he feels Hastings is a better option in the T20 format because of his ability to bowl yorkers. Warne also accused the Australian team of being a little one-dimensional in its approach.
This is not the first time Warne has launched a scathing attack on the Australian team management. In the last year’s Ashes too, the player-turned-commentator heavily criticized coach Lehmann for his tactics.
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