Australia’s high performance coach, Graeme Hick, has defended Australia’s selections in wake of their humiliating defeat to Afghanistan in the Under-19 World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
Australia had made three changes despite winning the first match against Namibia by a whopping margin of 101 runs.
While captain Alex Gregory didn’t play because of stomach illness, the other two changes seemed to indicate the rotation policy was still in place at the Under-19 level.
“Captain had a bad stomach, couple of guys have brought injuries into the competition and there is only a certain amount of workload that they can do building to the next part of the tournament,” Hick said.
A further indication Australia was still utilising the much-maligned performance management program cam from opening bowler Billy Stanlake. After an opening spell of four overs in which he conceded only 11 runs, Stanlake never returned to the bowling crease.
While initially Hick backed the captain’s decision (“that’s what the captain decided, that pace is easy to hit”), he went on to add that as Stanlake was coming back from injury he would have bowled only a couple more overs at best.
The objective of the World Cup is also a debatable topic, with Hick stating the other reason for changes was that team management wanted each player of the squad to participate in a game.
“We wanted everyone to have an experience at the World Cup,” Hick said. “We have a strong squad and we pride ourselves on that. We also felt couple of players deserved a chance to play.”
Hick also defended the notion that such plans could deviate from the objective of winning the World Cup.
“It’s the plan we have planned to play it,” he said. “I understand what you are saying, but having said that we felt the squad we have got to win, we would have made two changes anyway. That was forced upon us.
“They didn’t seem like they were radical changes to us.”
Australia not only have to defeat group toppers Bangladesh on Wednesday, but also hope their net run rate is substantial to ensure they progress through to the quarter-final stage.
With Australia facing a cut-throat situation, Hick has said that they will choose their best eleven for the final match of the group stage.
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