‘Sitting on the couch’: Cricket greats roasted after ‘disaster’

An Aussie Test captain has flipped the script on critics after suggestions members of the Aussie team would privately be “seething”.

Former Test captain Tim Paine has turned the table on the critics of the Australian team after the ODI series horror show against Pakistan.

On the same day Aussie legend Michael Clarke lashed the disrespect shown by Cricket Australia and national selectors, Paine has defended the players involved in the historic 2-1 series defeat — something Pakistan had not achieved in Australia in 22 years.

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Former Test wicketkeeper Ian Healy and former England Test captain Michael Vaughan were among the commentators to criticise Australia’s performance after the hosts were knocked over for measly totals of 140 and 163 in the final two matches.

“Six for 91 is just not good enough for players that are trying to prove their worth at this level,” Vaughan said on the Fox Cricket broadcast.

“Let’s be honest, for three games I don’t remember seeing an Australian batting line-up look so exposed.

“Three games on the trot against a bit of pace, a bit of movement. It’s not express, it’s not rapid.

“But they’ve been completely exposed.

“You’ve got to remember they are world champions — the best team in the world.”

Paine instead launched an impassioned defence of the team captained by Josh Inglis.

“That annoyed me. People were saying, ‘Oh, I can’t believe how bad the Australian cricket team are’,” said the former Australian Test captain on SEN radio.

“These are cricket commentators, and world-class cricket commentators, saying, ‘I can’t believe what I’m watching, this is the World Cup holders’.

“No, it’s not. The World Cup holders are sitting on the couch getting ready for a Test series.

“Let’s just pump the brakes on the, ‘I can’t believe we’re seeing this performance from the world champions’.

Tim Paine, Pat Cummins and Ian Healy.

“We’re blooding some youth to give them experience at the international level whilst the big boys get ready for two hugely important series — one in Test cricket and one in white-ball [cricket].

“Relax. It’s OK.”

Healy has also been outspoken about the reckless approach shown by Australian batsmen.

The iconic glovesman took aim at Jake Fraser-McGurk and fellow opener Matt Short following the team’s win in the series opener.

“We are gearing up for a Champions Trophy, so there aren’t many trials before a team has to be selected,” he said on SEN radio in Queensland.

“We should be playing these games properly.

“Our shot selection was poor and to me, Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk were playing like schoolyard bullies. The disregard for the conditions wasn’t good enough.”

Jake Fraser-McGurk of Australia walks from the field after being dismissed during game three. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

Healy has not backed down from his comments despite a public response from Fraser-McGurk, where the opener said he will not change his aggressive approach.

The 60-year-old doubled down in a column written for SEN on Monday.

Healy called the series a “disaster” for Australia.

“I don’t go swinging after the fact, but I’ll just add to what has already been said with what I’ve seen and read in the disaster that was the great Pakistan win having been 1-0 down in a three-match series,” Healy wrote.

“My initial game one critique fell on deaf ears, and rookies were not only OK to express opinions that were wrong but encouraged to keep going with tactics that have never worked in Australia.”

Pakistan’s players celebrate winning the series. Picture: David Woodley / AFP

Healy was also scathing of coach Andrew McDonald’s attempt to defend his players after seeing them bowled out for 140 in 31.5 overs and 163 in 35 overs.

He appeared to suggest said McDonald and batting coach Michael Di Venuto would privately be “seething”.

“For mine, the Australian coach’s judgment went on the line in game three,” Healy said.

“He openly explained on Saturday that he’d heard the criticism that his strategies were dangerous when grit and fighting for 40 or 50 more here and there might be the way to get the totals you need in Australian conditions.

“After game two, he scratched his head saying there were defensive shots in that rubble of 163.

“So, I went back and had a look, what defensive shots was he talking about? There were two.

“An airy wafting LBW, a stand-up cover drive attempt to hit a ball on the up, a tentative cut shot caught at cover, a late chop on a pull shot, and a back away hero shot didn’t even get a mention. It was just the two defensive shots that he wanted to talk about.

“His batting coach must be quietly seething that the group of newbies playing yesterday were forced to learn the hard way and watch how great bowlers do it tough when Pakistan batted appropriately.”

It comes amid revelations Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins was at a Coldplay concert in Sydney as the B-grade Australian outfit succumbed to Pakistan.

Clarke on Monday questioned why Test players including Cummins, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Marnus Labuschagne were left out of a series-deciding match to rest up for the Test series against India that begins in Perth on November 22.

Pat and Becky Cummins at a Coldplay concert.

Their Test teammate Alex Carey will on Tuesday play in a domestic one-day game for South Australia and Clarke said it appeared Cricket Australia “don’t care about losing”.

“I’m just a bit confused, so 11 days between now and the first Test, why can’t the Aussie boys who are part of this Test series play in the one-dayer,” he said on his Big Sports Breakfast radio show.

“They are going to go to training and get flogged.

“If Australia had won the first two games, then you can understand why they rest their big fish, but it was series on the line.

“You can’t expect the fans to want and come and watch one-day cricket. We are bagging one-day cricket, no one is turning up, hasn’t got the interest, I wonder why. I feel like we obviously don’t care about losing that series. If you’re not going to care, we’re not going to care.

“I think we have it wrong. I understand resting for Test cricket, I love that, but it’s a one-day game. They are going to bowl more than that at training.”

An Instagram post revealed Cummins was at the concert with his wife Becky, rested after playing the opening two matches of the series.

Originally published as ‘Sitting on the couch’: Cricket greats roasted after ‘disaster’