Mitch sees Cam shaft
Johnson opposes Smith promotion, smells vendetta
Mitchell Johnson has questioned Steve Smith’s promotion to opener and says selectors deserved to be asked whether Cameron Bancroft was the victim of a vendetta.
The snubbing of Bancroft has triggered a “Sandgropergate’’ scandal in Perth.
Locals are furious that their opener has missed a berth in the Test side to face the West Indies in Adelaide.
In his weekly column for Perth’s Sunday Times published on The West Australian’s website, Johnson said Smith had “long been the
glue’’ of Australia’s top order at No.4 and he could not understand the logic for changing things.
“You can’t help but wonder why (selection chairman) George Bailey and the selection
panel have gone this way,’’ Johnson wrote.
“Do they feel Smith hasn’t been at his best and they think this could be a good change for him?
“There are reports that
Smithy doesn’t like sitting around waiting to bat but he has done that most of his career at fourth in the order – and he’s been pretty good at it.
“Is it purely to fit Cam Green back in and give him a shot at No.4? I’m not a big fan of this way. You always want your best players at third and fourth in the order. It’s a really interesting way of selection and anything could happen.’’
Bailey, who fell out with Johnson this season following the former Test quick’s comments that Bailey was too close to the players, denied at his press conference that the panel or any player had any lingering bad vibes towards Bancroft following his fallout with the bowlers for comments he made about the Sandpapergate scandal.
“Bailey says there is no issue or vendetta but you can’t blame Bancroft – or the public – for questioning this, if he is claiming the selection panel didn’t consider the specialist opener among the nation’s seven-best batters.
“It’s obviously a confusing message for the West Australian, who has scored the most runs out of all those openers considered and done it over the past couple of years, so any questions around this are fair.’’