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Former Indian cricketer and selector Saba Karim was shocked to see Australia leave out arguably one of their most in-form players in Travis Head for the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023 in Nagpur.
Head has been one of their most consistent batters of late and Karim feels it was almost a no-brainer to play him in Nagpur, irrespective of what his record has been in the subcontinent.
Speaking to India News, Saba Karim also questioned the visitors for playing two right-arm off-spinners, Nathan Lyon and Todd Murphy and not choosing to have 'variety' in their bowling attack. Here's what he said about their team combination:
"I feel Australia played the wrong XI. How can you drop Travis Head, who was the highest run-scorer in the their summer? Just because he failed the last time they were in the subcontinent? You also played two right-arm off-spinners. How will you exploit the conditions without any variety in your attack?"
Australian batters neither showed patience nor application: Saba Karim
Saba Karim also pointed out another factor that led to the visitors' loss and that was the way their batters applied themselves at the crease. He felt that the pitch was good enough for the opposition to score big, but they were just not patient enough to trust their defense and dig deep.
On this, he stated:
"I have already spoken at length about how you need to trust your defence in India and show the application and patience. But their batters showed neither and that's perhaps where they lost the game."
The visitors will need to make some tough calls before the Delhi Test to make a strong comeback in the series.
Australia's squad: Pat Cummins (Captain), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Peter Handscomb, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.
