India’s players shake hands with Australia’s cricketers after India’s win in the third day of the first Test cricket match between India and Australia at the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) Stadium in Nagpur. (Image: AFP)
Lehmann termed Travis Head’s sitting out as ‘ridiculous’, and the team’s brief preparation for the subcontinent conditions was also behind the horror start to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
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- Even though not playing Travis Head is still the topic of conversation, Australia need to move ahead and ensure runs on the board are the only insurance against hosts India
- For Lehmann, the key to success is that Australia need to bat big ‘because 177 is never going to be enough’ and truly in Nagpur 250 would have been a different game
- Even though it’s easy in hindsight, Lehmann believes Australia should have played a tour game like they did in 2017 under Lehmann when Australia had a two-week camp in Dubai
In-form Travis Head’s omission from the Nagpur Test, which many Australian stalwarts believe could have made a difference in the top order, refuses to die down. As former coach of the national side, Darren Lehmann knows a thing or two about choosing the right personnel. He guided Australia to a thrilling win in the opening Test of the 2017 series before the visitors lost the hard-fought series 2-1.
Lehmann termed Head’s sitting out as ‘ridiculous’, and the team’s brief preparation for the subcontinent conditions was also behind the horror start to the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
“They didn’t get selection right. Not playing Head was ridiculous, and he could have bowled some extra overs.
“The hardest thing for him now is how is he going to try and stay in the side after having such an amazing two years at home,” Lehmann told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“If he’s ever going to succeed it was going to be off the back of the confidence the home series gave him. It’s a really tough one for him. Obviously, they had their reasons, but the records of the other blokes aren’t overly flattering either apart from (Steve) Smith, and (Marnus) Labuschagne is obviously a good player of spin,” he said.
When Lehmann was at the helm in 2017, Australia had a two-week camp in Dubai, while the current squad trained just a handful of days on a curated wicket at North Sydney Oval before a brief preparation camp in Bangalore before Nagpur.
“Ideally, they should have played a tour game. They don’t like to do that because the tour match we played last time (2017) was on a green wicket.
“But it’s still batting for a long period of times in the heat and getting used to the ball, things like that. So, a tour game would have been handy ideally, but they decided to do the BBL didn’t they, which was good for the Heat because we got Marnus and Uzzie (Usman Khawaja), but maybe they needed a tour game. It’s easy in hindsight, though, isn’t it,” said Lehmann.
The key to success, for Lehmann, is, “You’ve just got to bat big because 177 is never going to be enough. It was turning, so you’re trying to get to 250. If it was 250 it’s a different game.”
