Stick with the top six, urges Waugh

FORMER Australia captain Steve Waugh says coach Darren Lehmann must persevere with his underperforming top six batsmen, adding that no one performs well with “the axe hanging over” him.

Lehmann warned his batsmen their test careers were in jeopardy after a dramatic second-innings collapse in the fourth test gave England a third straight Ashes series win.

“No-one is guaranteed apart from probably Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers,” he said, referring to the captain and the opener.

But Waugh, who played 168 Tests, said selectors need to stick with the nation’s top six Test batsmen if they are to have any chance of putting Australian cricket back on a winning path.

“Look at Phil Hughes, he’s been up and down the order and has been dropped three or four times in 20 Tests. That doesn’t give you much confidence,” Waugh told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation this week.

“Usman Khawaja is another example. If you’ve got the axe hanging over your head always, it is really hard to relax and play your natural game.

“Selectors have got to say: ‘We’re going to go through some tough times, but these are the six or seven batsmen we believe in and we’re going to back them, even if they don’t succeed straight away’.”

Waugh said he experienced first-hand the benefits of selectors showing faith, as he did not win a test until his 13th match and failed to score a ton until his 26th test.

“It took a long while for me to get it right as well,” Waugh said.

“But I had the benefit of getting it wrong.”

Waugh believed Australia’s problems stemmed from too much Twenty20 and one-day cricket, which he said did not adequately prepare batsmen for the discipline of a test match. — ©