Australia crashed out of the T20 World Cup today accompanied by criticism from two of their former greats.
Having lost to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka in the group stage, the Aussies required Ireland to beat Zimbabwe to keep their slim hopes of reaching the Super Eights alive.
However, persistent rain in Kandy forced the game to be abandoned without a ball being bowled, meaning Australia failed to progress to the next stage for the first time since 2009.
The early exit has led to a stream of criticism with former batter Mark Waugh baffled by the non-inclusion in the squad of former red ball captain Steve Smith.
Waugh told SENQ Breakfast: “I think that the whole campaign was doomed from the get-go with selection issues and injuries. I think preparation hasn’t been great. It’s all unfolded probably the way I thought it would, even though we’re in a pretty weak group.
“I know you can’t please everybody, and sometimes there are tough calls that can go either way, but to me, the non-selection of Steve Smith in the squad originally is the most baffling non-selection I can remember for ages. I mean, here you’ve got a guy who has looked a class above everybody in the Big Bash League.
“He’s an outstanding fieldsman. He’s a great player of spin. He should have been first picked, and he wasn’t picked in the squad… then he wasn’t even picked as a replacement, and then they’ve got him over there, and they still haven’t played him.”
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Omission is an ‘insult’ to Steve Smith – Waugh
Smith, who has averaged over 48 in the BBL this season, was left out with Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Cooper Connolly and Josh Inglis all preferred. He was eventually called up as a replacement for the injured Josh Hazlewood but was not picked for the game with Sri Lanka.
Waugh added: “Look at the selections. Look at Maxwell, Connolly, Green and Inglis, these guys are all out of form. Maxwell and Connolly have not made a run for three months between them.
“The selectors have their plans in place, but you’ve got to be smart enough to see which players are in form and which players are out of form, and you’ve got to play the percentages a lot better than what our selectors have played at the moment.
“It’s just been baffling some of the selections, and injuries haven’t helped obviously. I just think they’ve got the selections completely wrong and to have your best player by 100 yards sitting on the sideline in Steve Smith… I think it’s an insult to Steve Smith, to be honest.”
Healy gets stuck into Australia
Former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy was equally unimpressed and even compared their approach to that of England before the Ashes, which the tourists lost convincingly.
He said: “We were duped just like England cricket, you know, in the lead-up to the Ashes. There was defiance if ever criticised. There was denial that we could be wrong when we picked the power team to play in the finesse conditions of Sri Lanka and India.
“Well, we’ve heard it all before. It was in November when England had assured everyone that the game had changed and they had it pegged.
“Get real, Australia!”
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