Former England skipper Nasser Hussain has slammed England’s selection for the pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Oval. Hussain claimed that England got their team selection wrong again on Day One of the second Ashes Test after having faced a defeat in Brisbane as well.
His comments came as they chose an all-out pace attack, including five seamers instead of selecting a spinner. And, Australia had a great start as they finished Day One on 221-2. Writing in his column for the Daily Mail, Nasser Hussain blamed the captain and coach for selecting five pace bowlers because it’s a day-night Test.
Nasser Hussain called it their selection blunder and wrote: “Chris Silverwood and Joe Root should not have picked five English-type seamers just because they are playing a day-night Test in Adelaide. It’s not the first time they have done this either. In Ahmedabad, last winter England played four seamers against India and then saw 28 of the 30 wickets that fell going to spin.”
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He continued: “There were long periods of play when the pitch was slow and flat and they needed a specialist spinner or the extra pace and X-factor of Mark Wood. But they had picked the side in Adelaide they should have played last week in Brisbane on a green top and they clearly do not rate their spinner in Jack Leach, not if they are leaving him out here.”
However, England had a bad day in fielding too. Jos Buttler dropped Marnus Labuschagne three times. At first, at 21 and later when he was at 95 as well. And, he later smashed his sixth Test century as well. The veteran also said that England missed the trick by bowling full and pitching the ball short also.
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“I cannot fault England’s efforts but they did bowl too short. The England bowlers were too worried about going for runs and did not bowl full enough. I know England lost Jofra Archer and Olly Stone before this series but Silverwood has been saying for two years now that they need pace in Australia. And Root has said that if England do what they’ve always done in Australia, they will be beaten again. But they have not done much differently so far in this series,” Nasser Hussain concluded.
