Robbing Phil to save Mitch
Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that the decision to install Shane Watson as Australia's new Test opener smacks of panic from the selectors.
Brydon Coverdale
25-Feb-2013
Malcolm Conn writes in the Australian that the decision to install Shane Watson as Australia's new Test opener smacks of panic from the selectors.
The selection panel of chairman Andrew Hilditch, David Boon, Merv Hughes and Jamie Cox is robbing Phil Hughes to save Mitchell Johnson. There is no question that while Hughes has not looked convincing during this series, it is not his form that has cost him his place so soon in the series. It is spearhead Mitchell Johnson's complete radar meltdown.
It is Johnson's inability to build pressure, witnessed by England scooting to 0-196 in little more than three hours on day one of the Lord's Test, which forced the selectors' hand. Tampering with the top of the order and installing a player who averaged less than five during his brief stint opening the batting for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield smacks of panic.
Robert Craddock writes in his Courier-Mail blog that he doesn't blame Australia for sacking Hughes but he does blame them for having no specialist opener in the squad to replace him.
Hughes announced his axing via Twitter several hours before the announcement was official. But as Chloe Saltau and Jamie Pandaram explain in the Sydney Morning Herald, the message was posted by Hughes' manager without the player's knowledge.
Brydon Coverdale is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. He tweets here