Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke has slammed Australian selectors after the visitors lost the opening Test match of the Border-Gavaskar series by an innings and 132 runs, which was their third biggest innings loss against India.
Australia surprisingly left out Travis Head, who has been their best batsman of the summer, from the first Test match. The tourists backed Matthew Renshaw in the final XI as he had prior experience of playing in tough Indian conditions but the left-hander was dismissed for a golden duck in the first innings and could only manage two runs in the second dig.
Clarke feels the Australian selectors can not make any changes to the playing XI unless Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green are match-fit.
“I think they’ve painted themselves into a corner where it’s very difficult to change the team,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.
“It’s such a corner that they’re almost stuck and unless they get some injury relief – ie. Mitchell Starc and Cameron Green come back – I don’t see how they can make any changes without looking like, A; there’s a massive over-reaction to what happened in the first game, or two; accepting they got it wrong, and I don’t think they want to do either of those.”
The 2015 World Cup-winning captain added Australia made a mistake in leaving out Travis Head, who has been in sublime form.
“Travis Head at No.5, if you start with him and it doesn’t work, then you can make a change,” he said.
“Now, they either shoot themselves in the foot if they drop Matthew Renshaw because they say ‘okay, we made a mistake’, and Andrew McDonald has come out and said ‘we haven’t made a mistake’.
“They’ve put themselves in such a tough position.”
Australia’s confidence must have taken a hit after an ignominious defeat in the opening Test match and it is going to be a tough job for them to bounce back in the series. However, they certainly have the players, who can help them get parity in the series.
The second Test match will be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi from Friday onwards.
