After Australia lost the first Test match against India, former Australian skipper Michael Clarke stated on Tuesday that the team management did not make the right decision to play the two off-spinners in the playing XI. According to him, it was not right for the balance of the team. Matthew Kuhnemann has been added to the squad as an option to spin the ball away from right-handers, but it is difficult for him to get a place in the XI as Murphy performed well in the first game.
“Our spinners did a good job but I don’t know if two offies is the right balance for us as well,” said Clarke on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.
“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.”
Earlier, the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy had ended within 3 days with Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja scalping 16 of the 20 wickets. The second Test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy is all set to be played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi beginning on February 17.
Squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Shubman Gill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (injured and yet to recover), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R. Ashwin, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Umesh Yadav, Jaydev Unadkat, Suryakumar Yadav.
Australia: Pat Cummins (capt), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green (injured), Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Lance Morris, Todd Murphy, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc (injured), Mitchell Swepson, David Warner.