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More big hitters needed in Aussie T20 side

Roar Guru
28th January, 2013
8

Had Sri Lanka the T20 in Melbourne, it would have been a travesty. But they prevailed when Glenn Maxwell took it upon himself to become an umpire and instruct the Sri Lankans to get on with it.

Mahela Jayawardene politely told him to, “f… off.” Maxwell, perhaps aware that he had created a scene, missed the last ball and Sri Lanka deservedly won the series 2-0.

In the overall scheme of things, Sri Lanka lost the Tests 3-0, drew the one day internationals 2-2 and won the T20s 2-0.

You might say Australia have better Test credentials and Sri Lanka are better at limited overs.

I might be way out of line here but whoever picks the Aussie ODI and T20 teams and decides the batting orders needs to take a good long look at themselves.

Australia doesn’t have novelty bowlers of the Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Kulusekara, Thisara Perera and Ajantha Mendis ilk in the limited overs game. And I suspect the Aussie selectors use T20 and ODIs as a gauge for who has the mettle to play for Australia at Test level.

But with an ounce of re-arrangement of the batting, an added bowler here and there, some field placements which are designed to restrict and get wickets and some hitters early in the order, Australia could beat Sri Lanka four times out of five

Could people like David Hussey, Luke Pomersbach, Tim Ludemann, Dirk Nannes, Ben Rohrer, Travis Birt, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Zampa and Chris Lynn be T20 candidates? Certainly!

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Could Australia open with David Warner and Adam Voges, bat Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh and Matthew Wade before George Bailey and introduce some of the above names into the bowling line-up? Again, certainly!

And could George Bailey make his bowlers use the off speed ball and the wide yorker with appropriate field placings? Damn tootin’!

I also wonder whether it is wise to be using Australia’s most promising left arm pace bowler in T20 games? Mitch Starc is better placed at ODI, Test match and Shield games.

Maybe Wade is better suited to Tests and ODIs, which would leave a spot for Brad Haddin and Ludemann to fight for in T20?

If George Bailey is to be the anchor batsman in T20, then maybe Voges is dropped for a blaster like Pommersbatch, Birt or Rohrer?

And maybe we need five T20 games and only three ODI games on these tours?

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