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Aussie hero Nathan Coulter-Nile fears axe

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6th June, 2019
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Nathan Coulter-Nile fears he could face the axe from the Australian team despite saving the day with the bat against the West Indies.

Coulter-Nile top-scored for Australia with 92 in the 15-run win as he, Steve Smith (73) and Alex Carey (45) combined to help Australia recover from 4-38.

But the West Australian is more concerned by his failure to take a wicket in this year’s tournament as he fights to retain his position as third quick.

“No (I don’t feel secure), I took 0-70,” Coulter-Nile said.

“We’ve got two world-class bowlers (in Kane Richardson and Jason Behrendorff, waiting to play).

“I’m not in the team to make runs, hopefully the top order does that so I wouldn’t be surprised if I got dropped for the next game.

“I’m in the team to take wickets and I’ve had two wicketless games so we’ll see how we go.”

It had been thought pre-tournament that Coulter-Nile’s ability with the bat could help him across the line ahead of both Behrendorff and Richardson.

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He would be the most likely option to go if Australia wanted to pick two spinners against India on Sunday, given Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc are locks.

The 31-year-old has used his stints out of the game with back injuries to focus on his batting, which was crucial at Trent Bridge.

His knock came off just 60 balls and included four sixes, making it the highest score from anyone batting at No.8 or lower in World Cup history.

“Last two years with stress fractures it’s all I could really do, bat,” Coulter-Nile, who has worked closely with West Australian opener Liam Davis, said.

“I was trying to play red-ball cricket but once I switched to white-ball cricket that’s all I really worked on.

“(Davis) just said ‘scrap that, we’re not playing red-ball cricket anymore and we just hit balls’, I just tried to hit balls for six.

“That’s all I’ve been doing for last year.”

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