Former India batsman Gautam Gambhir made a really strong statement about Australia’s captain Pat Cummins in the aftermath of Australia’s poor start to their World Cup 2023 campaign.
Australia have lost their first two matches of the tournament – vs India in Chennai and vs South Africa in Delhi – both by significant margins.
While their batting has been a major letdown in both the games – not a single Aussie batsman has hit a fifty yet while there have been 12 centuries hit by other teams in only 10 matches – Australia’s bowling too came under the scanner against South Africa. Not to forget their horror show in the field where they dropped 6 catches and made a few ground fielding mistakes.
Pat Cummins has come under scrutiny and his appointment as the ODI captain by the selectors under criticism. In two outings, Cummins has bowled only 15.2 overs in which he leaked 104 runs for only 1 wicket. Cummins never really was a force with the ball in white-ball cricket as he is in Test cricket.
Gautam Gambhir has opined that Pat Cummins – who is averaging a very poor 69 with the ball in ODIs in 2023 – doesn’t even deserve to be in Australia’s XI in the ODI side. Gambhir reckons Steve Smith should be made the Aussie ODI captain.
“I think Pat Cummins doesn’t deserve to compete for Australia in ODIs. They can include Cameron Green in his place as he can contribute in the batting department,” Gambhir was quoted as saying by crictoday.
“Steve Smith should lead the Australian team in white ball cricket. Pat Cummins doesn’t get a spot in this ODI XI – he should continue playing red ball cricket”
Australia haven’t come to the World Cup with a proper plan: Gautam Gambhir
Right from the moment Ashton Agar was ruled out of the World Cup due to injury and replaced by Marnus Labuschagne, the talk about Australia’s squad was that they only had Adam Zampa as a specialist leg-spinner in their entire squad, with Glenn Maxwell being the other spinner.
Gautam Gambhir feels Australia simply made the wrong plan in picking only one spinner in the squad, and not replacing Agar with a spinner.
“Adam Zampa is the only spinner in the side. Australia haven’t come to the World Cup with a proper plan. Look at other teams, they have match-winning spinners in the side. I want to see the comments of former Australia players on their team’s selection process. They have a habit of talking about others countries,” he added.
