Game on for places in ODI side
AUSTRALIAN captain Steve Smith is looking for new players to “jump out of the pack” in the domestic one-day series after a 4-1 flogging by India put question marks over several members of his struggling national team.
Keeper Matthew Wade, who was dropped midway through the series, and allrounder James Faulkner, who was recalled after losing his national contract, look two players most under the pump.
Hilton Cartwright, who opened the batting in the opening two games while Aaron Finch was injured, was also a major disappointment, scoring one in both innings.
Wade had a chance to prove his worth to the side in the final clash in Nagpur, given eight overs to add to his 14 runs in his three previous innings. Instead he laboured to 20 off 18 balls.
It was the keeper’s highest score in his past seven ODI innings but still left the Aussies, with only 242 runs on the board, well short of a defendable target.
The Indians, thanks to 125 from opener Rohit Sharma, reeled the target in with three wickets down, and almost seven overs to spare, to retake the No.1 one-day ranking from South Africa.
“We showed some glimpses that we could play, but we are losing wickets in clumps very consistently and that’s not good enough,” Smith said after the final thrashing.
“The top four need to stand up and really take control — but we are not doing it consistently enough to give ourselves a chance to go hard in the back end of a game. It’s something we need to look at.
“Some guys are back playing in the domestic oneday competition, some guys who are going to put pressure on the guys that are here.
“We want guys to perform consistently. We’ll have a good look at the competition back home, hopefully a few guys jump out of the pack and get some really big runs and bowl really well as well.”