Michael Clarke, former Australian skipper has questioned national selector Trevor Hohns for not finding anything wrong with current skipper Tim Paine’s leadership.
Selectors announced Australian Test squad for the upcoming South Africa Series on Wednesday and retained under-fire Tim Paine who was skipper in Test Series loss to India as the captain. National selector Trevor Hohns said that Tim Paine’s leadership was never in doubt after announcing the squad and mentioned that the panel did not waste any time pondering on it during the meeting.
Michael Clarke: Tactically Tim Paine Missed A Few Tricks And His Keeping Wasn’t The Best
The comments have not gone well with former Australia captain Michael Clarke.
He has questioned the stance of selectors regarding Tim Paine and said, ““Don’t say nothing’s wrong there. Tactically he missed a few tricks and his keeping was nowhere near as good as what I’ve seen from Painey.”
The 39-year-old said he was having no problem with under fire Tim Paine continuing as the captain but he definitely feels there is a need of more people to help him with it. Further, Michael Clarke stated that selectors should not stay in an illusion and think that tactics which failed against India will all of a sudden work during the South Africa tour.
“Obviously you have to make the team first but then the captaincy, it would have been spoken about,” he said on Sky Sports’ Big Sports Breakfast.
“My question is – so many past players, so many people – the fans of the game – have questioned Painey’s tactics throughout the series. So, you haven’t questioned his captaincy and you haven’t added anyone, whether it is a player or support staff member to the squad to help him with his tactics.”
“How does he get better? How does he go to South Africa to improve? It seems like that is an area that he needs help, whether it is extra leadership on the field or extra people around him to help him get better. If you keep doing the same thing you will keep getting the same results.”
Mitchell Johnson has backed skipper Tim Paine to continue as Australia’s captain, and believes that calls for him to be dropped are “ridiculous.” Kevin Pietersen said Australia should look beyond Tim Paine for Test captaincy while Greg Chappell has thrown his support behind Tim Paine, with the Test legend claiming that it is still not the time to be jettisoning Australia’s captain.
Michael Clarke: There’s Nothing Wrong With Sticking With Tim Paine But Help Him Get Better By Giving Him Some Help
Tim Paine’s captaincy and his wicket-keeping standards have come under severe criticism ever since India thrashed Australia 2-1 in the recently-concluded 4 match Test series. Tim Paine has led his country to 11 wins, four draws and eight defeats.
“Is Trevor Hohns saying they thought the tactics were fine and we’ll be right and do the same thing in South Africa but get a different result? If that is the case, I said they missed a few tricks throughout the summer.”“There’s nothing wrong with sticking with Painey. I like him, that’s great, stick with your captain if you think he is the right man for the job. Still help him get better. This is my point about Painey. I’m not saying it is time to go. Stick with the captain, I love that. But give him some help. Allow him to get better in the areas he needs to get better.”
“What changes are we making for South Africa to help Painey call it tactically? What are we doing different? We go to South Africa and win and everything is different? That is not how you win the Ashes,” Michael Clarke said.
Matthew Wade was axed from Australia’s Test squad for South African tour and he was replaced by Alex Carey. The squad includes four more uncapped cricketers apart from Alex Carey. They are Sean Abbott, Michael Neser, Mitchell Swepson and Mark Steketee. Matthew Wade averaged just 21.62 with 173 runs coming from his bat.