Legendary Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne reckons that the current Australian team has an “average” batting lineup. Ahead of the Test series against Pakistan, he also expressed that this is the weakest line-up Australia has ever had. He also delivered an incriminating assessment of the tourist’s quality with the bat in the absence of banned duo Steve Smith and David Warner.
Warne has no concerns about Australia’s ability to make an impact with the ball but thinks a lack of runs will be an issue for some time unless they can churn out young talent.
Smith and Warner, along with Cameron Bancroft, remain suspended for their part in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal against South Africa earlier this year, and Australia must cope with those absences during the two-Test series in the United Arab Emirates, starting on Sunday. During a chat with Omnisport, Shane said, “Australian cricket at the moment is struggling. I think we’ve got a fantastic bowling unit, I think we’ve got good reserves, good back-up, but our batting is as weak as I’ve seen it for a long, long time.”
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He further added, “Especially, with probably two of the top five batsmen in the world, in David Warner and Steve Smith, being banned for 12 months, it weakens our batting even more. To not have those guys, it looks like probably [Usman] Khawaja and Shaun Marsh will be our two leading batsmen and carrying the workload of the batters. I’m not saying they’re weak, but they’re not Smith and Warner. For me over all the years I’ve watched Australian cricket, I think it’s probably the weakest batting side we are going to have put together and we’re probably only average or if you’re trying to be nice to them, a bit above average.”
However, Warne also reckons that the situations like these create an opportunity for the youngsters in Australia to prove their worth for the team.
He concluded, “With an Ashes around the corner, a World Cup around the corner, so many great things to happen in the next year or so, it’s an exciting time to be an Australian batsman.”
