Shane Warne says the decision to leave spinner Nathan Hauritz out of the deciding Ashes Test was “staggering” and someone will have to take the blame for it.

England’s 197-run win on day four of the fifth and final Test at The Oval gave them the series 2-1.

The south London ground has a reputation for assisting spin bowlers.

But Australia chose not to recall off-spinner Hauritz, the lone specialist slow bowler in the squad.

Instead they opted to stick with the four-man pace attack that had bowled them to victory by an innings and 80 runs in the fourth Test at Headingley, a ground that traditionally favours the quicks.

England did field an off-spinner at the Oval in Graeme Swann and he took a valuable eight wickets for 158 runs in the match.

“There is bound to be a lot more talk about why Australia did not choose Nathan Hauritz,” Australia leg-spin great Warne wrote in his Times column.

“Personally, I have to say that I was staggered by the decision,” Warne added.

“I would always want to have a spinner in the side for variety’s sake, but I think this time Australia simply misread the pitch.”

Groundsman Bill Gordon copped some flak in the Australian press for preparing a ‘result’ wicket rather than the traditional batting-friendly surface for which the Oval is known.

“The pitch wasn’t a minefield, but it was ordinary,” Warne said. “I am not making a big thing about it, because it produced some decent cricket.

“Other than Australia’s mad couple of hours in the first innings (when they were bowled out for 160), the scores were not that low.

“In a way, you could say that it was a typical Oval wicket – except the first day was more like your normal day four.”

However, Warne stressed: “I do not believe that it was doctored in favour of England. It is not as though they picked two spinners, and they couldn’t have known that Hauritz would be left out.”

Warne though said Hauritz’s omission raised questions for the selectors and Australia captain Ricky Ponting who, in Hauritz’s absence, had to rely on part-time spinner Marcus North.

“I do not know who had the final say on selection, whether it was the selectors themselves, or Ricky, or what degree of input came from Tim Nielsen, the coach.

“We all make mistakes and somebody, somewhere, will have to take the blame for this one.

“Regardless of that, I am sure that after an hour’s play on Thursday, if not earlier, Ricky would have been thinking to himself at slip: ‘I could have used Hauritz here.’

“I’ve said all along Hauritz and Graeme Swann are pretty similar bowlers, and we saw how successful Swann was with his eight wickets in the match.”

Warne said conditions had made it a bad toss to lose for Ponting.

“If Ricky had called correctly and batted first, things probably would have been different. England had to win and effectively they gambled fifty-fifty on getting the opportunity to put runs on the board first time,” he said.

Asked about the non-selection of Hauritz, Ponting said on Sunday: “We probably got that wrong.

“I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams thought the wicket would play the way it did. In hindsight, a specialist spinner would have been pretty handy out there,” he said.

Averages in the 2009 Ashes
BATTING (matches, innings, not outs, runs, highest score, average, 100s, 50s, caught, stumped):
ENGLAND
Jonathan Trott 1 2 0 160 119 80.00 1 0 1 0
Andrew Strauss 5 9 0 474 161 52.66 1 3 4 0
Kevin Pietersen 2 4 0 153 69 38.25 0 1 1 0
Graeme Swann 5 8 1 249 63 35.57 0 2 1 0
Andrew Flintoff 4 7 1 200 74 33.33 0 1 1 0
Matt Prior 5 9 1 261 61 32.62 0 2 11 1
Stephen Harmison 2 3 2 31 19no 31.00 0 0 0 0
Stuart Broad 5 9 1 234 61 29.25 0 2 1 0
Ian Bell 3 5 0 140 72 28.00 0 2 1 0
Paul Collingwood 5 9 0 250 74 27.77 0 3 4 0
Alastair Cook 5 9 0 222 95 24.66 0 1 7 0
James Anderson 5 8 2 99 29 16.50 0 0 2 0
Ravi Bopara 4 7 0 105 35 15.00 0 0 3 0
Monty Panesar 1 2 1 11 7no 11.00 0 0 0 0
Graham Onions 3 4 2 19 17no 9.50 0 0 0 0

AUSTRALIA
Michael Clarke 5 8 1 448 136 64.00 2 2 8 0
Marcus North 5 8 1 367 125no 52.42 2 1 3 0
Ricky Ponting 5 8 0 385 150 48.12 1 2 11 0
Shane Watson 3 5 0 240 62 48.00 0 3 2 0
Brad Haddin 4 6 0 278 121 46.33 1 1 15 0
Simon Katich 5 8 0 341 122 42.62 1 1 6 0
Michael Hussey 5 8 0 276 121 34.50 1 2 6 0
Nathan Hauritz 3 3 1 45 24 22.50 0 0 0 0
Graham Manou 1 2 1 21 13no 21.00 0 0 3 0
Ben Hilfenhaus 5 6 4 40 20 20.00 0 0 0 0
Phillip Hughes 2 3 0 57 36 19.00 0 0 1 0
Peter Siddle 5 6 1 91 35 18.20 0 0 3 0
Mitchell Johnson 5 6 0 105 63 17.50 0 1 0 0
Stuart Clark 2 3 0 38 32 12.66 0 0 0 0

BOWLING (overs, maidens, runs, wickets, average, five wickets in an innings, 10 wickets in a match, best bowling):
ENGLAND
Stuart Broad 154.1 25 544 18 30.22 2 0 6-91
Graham Onions 77.4 11 303 10 30.30 0 0 4-58
Stephen Harmison 43 10 167 5 33.40 0 0 3-54
Graeme Swann 170.2 30 567 14 40.50 0 0 4-38
James Anderson 158 38 542 12 45.16 1 0 5-80
Andrew Flintoff 128.5 18 417 8 52.12 1 0 5-92
Paul Collingwood 18 1 76 1 76.00 0 0 1-38
Monty Panesar 35 4 115 1 115.00 0 0 1-115
Ravi Bopara 8.2 1 44 0 – 0 0 N/A

AUSTRALIA
Ben Hilfenhaus 180.5 40 604 22 27.45 0 0 4-60
Peter Siddle 161.4 24 616 20 30.80 1 0 5-21
Nathan Hauritz 103.2 17 321 10 32.10 0 0 3-63
Mitchell Johnson 162.1 15 651 20 32.55 1 0 5-69
Stuart Clark 47.0 12 176 4 44.00 0 0 3-18
Marcus North 67.3 13 204 4 51.00 0 0 4-98
Michael Clarke 19.0 1 75 1 75.00 0 0 1-12
Simon Katich 10.0 2 27 0 0.00 0 0 N/A
Shane Watson 8.0 0 49 0 0.00 0 0 N/A

© AFP 2012

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