Rodney Hogg, the former Aussie quick, has accused the Australian skipper Steven Smith of favouritism in the national squad and has accused Smith of picking his mates in the team,
“They’re picking their mates. Smith shouldn’t be a selector. (Ashton) Agar’s been pushed through and (Hilton) Cartwright’s still there. We saw (Nic) Maddinson get selected (he’s) a mate, he’s one of Steve Smith’s mates. You can’t pick bl**dy mates,” Hogg told SEN radio station in Australia.
“We’ve got to get fair dinkum. We’re really off the ball a bit here, I think the captain’s getting his own way. All the way down, there’s got to be question marks. All the way across Cricket Australia. (Jon) Holland has proven he can bowl people out, left-arm orthodox is a really hard. He’s proven it and we aren’t seeing him,” he added.
Hogg has directly launched an attack on Smith and has openly said that only the favourites of captain are getting a chance to play in the team. While one can’t comment on the matter, Smith still has a chance to answer to these accusations by winning the next two ODIs against India as he has drawn a lot of criticism after losing Test series earlier this year and now losing the ODI series.
In fact, they haven’t have done well on a personal level as well, and the team has failed to provide competition to the home side.
The comments of Hogg might put some pressure on Smith, and he might be forced to make some change in the team as he has taken some surprising decisions till now. From asking Hilton Cartwright to open the innings to ignoring James Faulkner after just one game, Smith hasn’t been able to put his foot right, and Indian team might continue their winning streak in Bangalore and Nagpur as well.