Pat Cummins and co might have won the opening Test of the three-match series by 159 runs against West Indies at the Kensington Oval, but one cannot deny the concerns around the batting performance. Australia managed just 180 runs in the first innings, and it was only down to Travis Head and Beau Webster that the visitors were able to post a target of more than 300 runs. The top order has left much to be desired, with Sam Konstas failing to leave an impression.
The right-handed Konstas, who did not play the World Test Championship (WTC) final against South Africa, managed scores of 3 and 5 against the West Indies. Australia even failed to score big in the WTC final, and this was the main reason behind their loss to the Proteas at the Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Former Australia wicketkeeper-batter Ian Healy took aim at Australia’s batting coach Michael Di Venuto for the “regressing” performances in the longest format, saying the time has come for players to stand up and let the bat do all the talking.
“I love to put it back onto the players more than coaches usually. But, as I said, Australian cricket’s batting head coach – and every state batting coach – should be under pressure because there’s not enough runs being scored around the nation either,” Healy said on SEN.
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“Michael Di Venuto – a friend of mine who is a good coach and a good man – has held the job since mid-2021. In this time, our national team batting has regressed in performance at the Test level,” he added.
Cameron Green move backfires
The move to elevate Cameron Green has so far backfired as the right-handed batter failed to get going in the WTC final and then the first Test against the West Indies.
Marnus Labuschagne was dropped from the squad for the first Test, and Steve Smith missed the contest due to an injury. Even Usman Khawaja has failed to set the stage on fire, and the pressure is mounting ahead of the upcoming Ashes.
“All that’s important to me is the performance. ‘I don’t care how you do it or what will make it easier for you – just get it done. They’re not making it easy for themselves at all, players have got to deal better with nerves by the sound of it,” said Healy.
“They need to create sound techniques and bat with balance so you can make really sound decisions ball after ball for long periods. At the moment, we’re failing many of these points, and the lower order is having to deal with it – either recovering the score or losing. It’s just too hard at the moment, we’ve got to clear those minds of our top order,” he added.
