- Ian Healy criticizes the coach for strange behavior with the players
- India leads Border-Gavaskar five-Test series 1-0
Australian cricket legend Ian Healy has taken aim at selector George Bailey for a strange act following Australia’s crushing Test loss to India.
After bowling out India for 150 on the first day, Australia were annihilated for the rest of the match, falling to a record 295 runs at Optus Stadium.
After a dismal 104, their lowest Test total against India at home in 44 years, Australia showed at least some fight in their second innings on Monday, before being bowled out for 238 shortly after tea on the fourth day.
Australia’s previous biggest home Test defeat against India by runs was 222 at the MCG in 1977, when their team was hit hard by World Series Cricket.
Healy and SEN radio presenter Pat Welch criticized coach Bailey for spending time with the players during the match and then shaking hands with the Indian players after the match.
Historically, selectors sit separately from cricketers while they play, often taking notes.
Australian cricket great Ian Healy criticized selector George Bailey for his strange decision to shake hands with the Indian players after the match.
Bailey was also seen sitting with the Australian players during the match.
—What is the president of the Selectors doing sitting there in a tracksuit? Welch said.
“I should be in some corporate box watching and taking notes.”
Healy was surprised to see Bailey on the field after the game.
“He came out and shook everyone’s hand, he did it all in a conga line,” Healy said.
“If I were an Indian cricketer, I would be thinking, ‘Why do I need to shake your hand if you are the chairman of selectors?’ “I just want to hurry up and celebrate this victory.”
Meanwhile, Australia will stick with the same team for the second Test in Adelaide that suffered a crushing defeat to India in Perth.
With the day-night match 11 days away at the Adelaide Oval, there might have been a temptation to change the XI that opened the Border-Gavaskar series with a record 295-run humiliation.
But Australia coach Andrew McDonald will give the underperforming batting line-up a chance to redeem itself after being beaten by India’s fast bowling superstar Jasprit Bumrah.
Australia will stick with the same team for the second Test in Adelaide that suffered a crushing clash from India in Perth.
“The same people in that dressing room are the same people who will be in Adelaide,” McDonald said.
Although McDonald left the door open for white-ball wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, who was in Perth’s 13-man squad, to make his Test debut as a top-six batsman.
All-rounder Mitch Marsh has been feeling sore after bowling the most overs (17) in a game in three years.
There were already concerns about Marsh’s fitness ahead of the Test after injuring his hamstring in the Indian Premier League and arriving at camp after time off on parental leave.
Those fears were realized when India batted for a day and a half in the second innings, forcing Marsh to bowl more than Australia would have liked.
The player who bowled when Marsh was exhausted, Marnus Labuschagne, is the most pressured Australian batsman.
The former number one-ranked Test batsman’s decline continued in Perth after falling with scores of two and three, unsuccessfully burning a review when he was lbw in both innings.
Labuschagne is averaging just 24 this year and his last century came in July 2023.
McDonald expressed his support for the struggling No. 3.
“When we’ve seen him at his best, he’s shown great intent in the crease,” McDonald said.
“That’s an ongoing discussion and it has ups and downs in players’ careers, so right now it’s in one of those patches and will certainly receive external criticism.”
“But internally we are very confident that, at his best, he is the player we need.”
“We’re really confident he can change that.”