Lehmann urges greats to back under-fire Australia ›
Let’s just get everyone from Australia behind the Australian cricket team and let’s get moving forward D LEHMANN, Australia coach
BRISBANE: Coach Darren Lehmann on Sunday urged former greats to get behind the Australian team for this week’s Ashes Test series opener against England following uproar over the selection of the squad.
Shane Warne led the chorus of disapproval of the 13-man squad, saying “Australia look confused”, while his former leg-spin Test bowling partner Stuart Macgill lashed the selectors as “morons”.
Wicketkeeper Tim Paine was chosen for his first Test in seven years and Shaun Marsh was recalled to the Test side for the eighth time in controversial selections announced on Friday. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion, aren’t they?” Lehmann told reporters in Brisbane, where the first Ashes Test begins on Thursday.
“I’d just like all our players, ex-players, to be really positive about the Australian cricket team.
“Let’s just get everyone from Australia behind the Australian cricket team and let’s get moving forward.”
Paine is in the Test side despite not keeping in any of Tasmania’s three Sheffield Shield games this season and spending much of the previous season as an understudy.
“We’ve watched him keep a fair bit,” Lehmann said. “Obviously T20s and the chairman’s game ... he’s a high-quality keeper.
“I was very impressed with him down in the
Adelaide game when he played against England. He’s been in good form with the gloves, as he always has been, and he has been very good for us in the T20s.”
‘SMITH WILL BOWL IN THE ASHES’
SYDNEY: Steve Smith may not be particularly keen to bowl in the Ashes, but Lehmann expects his captain to get through some overs after the hosts settled on a four-man attack.
“He’ll have to bowl at some stage, I’m sure,” said Lehmann of his skipper, who picked up five wickets in the 2013 Ashes.
“England are a quality side and he’s got some key wickets against England before. So he’ll bowl at some stage.
“We’re always trying to make him bowl. He’ll certainly bowl some during the series.”
Lehmann is confident Australia can prosper with just four frontline bowlers, after using the tactic in four out of six home Tests
last season.