Ashes Slashes: Broad gives 'muddled' Australia top three the thumbs down

Stuart Broad is wondering how Australia can go into the Ashes later this year with the top three currently on show in the West Indies, terming it the most "muddled" combination he has seen from them, although he backed Sam Konstas to be in the side come November.

While England have three more Tests to play against India, Australia's pink-ball outing against West Indies in Jamaica, which starts on Saturday, will be their final Test before the Ashes begins in Perth in late November with the likelihood of another selection race early in the season.

Having given Marnus Labuschagne one match as opener in the World Test Championship final, Australia recalled Konstas for this series and Cameron Green has had the No. 3 spot since Lord's following his return from injury. Konstas has made scores of 3, 5, 25 and 0, while there are continuing questions about Usman Khawaja's form, although there were encouraging signs from Green in Grenada, where he scored a half-century.

"I can't see this being the same top three for the Ashes," Broad said on the Grade Cricketer. "I'm trying not to look that far ahead, particularly with English cricket, but the Aussie selectors generally get it right and they can't be watching the top three currently in the Caribbean going, 'That top three is amazing'.

"I'm not out of place in thinking it's the most muddled top three in my lifetime. I've grown up with [Matthew] Hayden, [Justin] Langer, [Ricky] Ponting, [David] Warner, [Shane] Watson," Broad added. "But I think Usman is struggling. Cameron Green at three, he's a six, isn't he? Five or six.

"Konstas is young and learning his way. Those pitches in the Caribbean have been quite tricky, so I imagine he'll get a run. I watched him net before the World Test Championship at Lord's where he didn't play, the crunch off the bat that you hear… but you get a couple of low scores and you start to question yourself a little bit. But I think he is there to stay."

Getting under the skin of the Australians was a trademark for Broad as a player, and when asked about the comments batting coach Michael Di Venuto had made about being comfortable with the batting line-up, said dryly: "Oh, that's good… is he a selector?"

However, di Venuto conceded the team's batting had not functioned collectively for a period of time, but he reiterated the challenging nature of the conditions in the West Indies.

"We don't hide behind the fact that we haven't functioned as a unit for the last couple of years," he said. "Take out the Sri Lanka series where we were outstanding in the spinning conditions, apart from that it's been really hard work and we've relied on individual brilliance to get us totals. Batting averages have come down, so too have the bowling averages. The bowlers have had some fun in the last couple of years and that's just the way it is."

Since the start of 2024, Australia's top three (noting the occasional use of a nightwatcher) is averaging 26.97 with Khawaja's 232 in Sri Lanka the only century, which places them mid-table between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe. For Nos. 4-7, they are third for the same period, behind Sri Lanka and England.

"We're comfortable where we're at," di Venuto said. "And we've got to be patient with these guys. The first Test here, we had three guys in the top four either playing Test cricket the first or second time or coming back to Test cricket."

On Konstas, di Venuto said there were technical aspects of his game being worked on but echoed the sentiments of head coach Andrew McDonald and captain Pat Cummins for patience.

"He's a young man that's coming into the game so I can't divulge everything that we're working on," he said. "But he's showed some encouraging signs in the last Test and it will take time. If we think back to some of our greats, Steve Waugh took 27 Tests before he got his first hundred. We're asking a young man to go out and have instant success. The game doesn't work like that."

Di Venuto, who has been Australia's batting coach in his second stint in the role since 2021, has come in for criticism in recent weeks, notably from Ian Healy, who questioned the impact he was having on the batters.

"It's disappointing but that's Heals' opinion, isn't it? I can't really control that," Di Venuto said. "It's really hard for top-order batters. I think gone are the days of the era that I played where they're flat wickets, so you had 15, 20 blokes averaging 50, 60, 80, 100 in domestic cricket and the same in Test cricket. The legends that played through that time, they were playing on very good wickets. Conditions have changed [and] balls have changed."

Conditions are likely to challenge batters again in Jamaica with a pink Dukes ball, which has only featured in two previous Tests, being used. Australia had their first look at the balls on Wednesday evening at Sabina Park in what was largely a batting and fielding session. Batters often appeared troubled by movement and bounce off the centre wickets.

West Indies, who cancelled their first day-time training session, will have their chance to practice under lights on Thursday.

The new floodlights have faced delays in being installed, and the work ran very close to deadline, but the required approvals have been granted. However, the new scoreboard and replay screen were still to be completed.