Captaincy doubts deflected by Clarke
With Australia facing the prospect of going nine consecutive Test matches without a win – and having already lost the Ashes for a third successive time – the leadership of captain Michael Clarke has been brought into the spotlight.
Former opening batsman Matthew Hayden pointed the finger at Clarke on Fox Sports this week when he said people searching for reasons for Australia’s poor performance in England might have been looking in the wrong place.
“We’re forgetting the one element here that we’re not actually looking at, and that is Michael Clarke’s leader-
CRICKET:
ship,” Hayden said.
Ahead of the final Test, which started at The Oval last night, Clarke said he believed hard work was the key to improving his own form and stopping the team’s run of losses.
“I’ve thought long and hard about what has occurred in this series, as you do when you are not performing as well as you would like personally and the team is not performing,” he said.
“I did after the India tour as well, but it is another reason to get out of bed and go and train to be better.
“I feel my game has a lot of improvement left in it.
“I feel I can help the team have success, and that is a big part of my role as a senior player in the team whether I am captain or not.
“But it is a tough challenge as a captain when you don’t get the results you want. And it just inspires you to try and become better as a player and leader.”
As poorly as Australia is performing, there is a way to go to match its record of 14 Tests without a win between November 1985 and December 1986. Allan Border was the captain then, and he went on to lead the team in 93 Tests.
Despite calls by other former players to stick with the battling line-up, Usman Khawaja paid the price for his poor series by making way for all-rounder James Faulkner to make his debut, with Shane Watson to bat at No.3.
Replacing a batsman with an all-rounder smacked of desperation, although former great Shane Warne, now an adviser to the team, said at the start of the tour that Faulkner should be in the starting XI and could play an instrumental role in the series.
Fast bowler Jackson Bird was also dumped after his disappointing match in the fourth Test, replaced by left-armer Mitchell Starc.
Clarke said he understood the value of adopting a pick-and-stick policy, but players had to justify their inclusion in the team.
“I think you have to perform as a player and if you don’t, there’s a chance you can be dropped,” he said.
“That’s the life we live playing sport at the highest level.”