Australia batting coach Michael Di Venuto hits back at Ian Healy, Stuart Broad

Recent criticism from Test greats Ian Healy and Stuart Broad have stung the Australian team – with batting coach Michael Di Venuto coming out swinging to defend the team’s batsmen.

Australian batting coach Michael Di Venuto has labelled recent criticism from Ian Healy as “disappointing” while pointing to the slow burns of Steve Waugh and Matthew Hayden as reason to be patient with Sam Konstas.

Di Venuto also took a cheeky dig at England great Stuart Broad who had described the Australian top order as “muddled,” stressing that this was a tough era for batting but conceding that the Aussie top order “haven’t functioned as a unit for the last couple of years.”

The dominance of Australia’s attack, combined with a string of useful half-centuries from No. 3 to No. 7, has ensured that the Aussies have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead to retain the Frank Worrell Trophy series against the West Indies with a day-night Test still to play in Jamaica, beginning on Sunday (AEST).

Sam Konstas speaks with under-fire batting coach Michael Di Venuto. Picture: Getty

But there remain significant queries over the Aussie top order ahead of the Ashes, in particular teen opener Konstas, who has made just 33 runs across four innings this series.

Konstas is the latest emblem of a broader malaise around the Aussie batting over the best part of the last two years.

From the high watermark of mid-2023, when Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith and Travis Head occupied the top three spots on the ICC Test batting rankings, the fifth-ranked Smith is now the lone Aussie in the top 10, with Labuschagne plummeting to 24th and out of the Australian XI.

Late last month, Healy – a member of Australia’s official Test team of the 20th century – said on SEN that Di Venuto and various state batting coach deserved scrutiny for the decline.

“Australian cricket’s batting head coach – and every state batting coach – should be under pressure because there’s not enough runs being scored around the nation either,” Healy said.

“Michael Di Venuto – a friend of mine who is a good coach and a good man – has held the job since mid-2021.

“In this time, our national team batting has regressed in performance at Test level.”

Sam Konstas bowled in second innings

Di Venuto, who played nine one-day internationals for Australia as well as scoring more than 25,000 first-class runs, said he was disappointed with Healy’s remarks and that conditions had become much harder for batting.

“Disappointing, but that’s Heals’ opinion, isn’t it? So I can’t really control that,” Di Venuto said at the Aussies’ team hotel in Jamaica.

“We don’t hide behind the fact that we haven’t functioned as a unit for the last couple of years. But conditions, ball changes, everything like that…it’s hard work, domestic cricket as well.

“I think gone are the days, 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 as well. So conditions have changed, balls have changed. It’s a lot tougher.”

Australia's Cameron Green celebrates scoring a half-century against West Indies in the second Test. Picture: AP

Di Venuto identified Waugh and Hayden as players who took a long time to come good in Test cricket, calling for calm around the output of Konstas and to a lesser extent Cameron Green, who made a second innings half-century in the second Test at St George’s.

“If (Healy is) so worried about it, he can call me,” Di Venuto said.

“There’s no issues there. But as I said, we’re comfortable. We’re out, and we’ve got to be patient with these guys.

“The first Test here, we had three guys in the top four coming either playing Test cricket the first or second time or coming back to Test cricket. So we had Cameron green in a really good place before his injury, but he sat out for a year.

“He hasn’t played Test cricket for a year. Played a couple of games at Gloucester, and then he’s in a World Test Championship final, batting at three, which is a different position for him.

“There’s different challenges. Is he good enough? Absolutely, he’s good enough, but sometimes it takes time. He’s played 30 Tests, and I think he’s got two hundreds.

Steve Waugh became one of Australia’s greatest batsmen

But it took him 42 innings to score his first Test century. Picture: News Corp

“Steve Waugh one of our greats, took 27 tests before he got a hundred so we’ve just got to be careful how we judge some people.

“Matthew Hayden’s another one. How long did it take us to get used to Test cricket?

“Now they’re someone that absolutely dominated domestic cricket for years after years after years, but it took him a few times before he started to get the hang of Test cricket, before he started to dominate Test cricket.

“So (it’s) tough for people to hang young people after a few Tests, and especially when we’re playing the conditions that we are.”

Broad, a long-time tormentor of Australian batters before retiring in 2023, told The Grade Cricketer podcast that the Aussie top order looked disjointed.

“I’m not out of place in thinking it’s the most muddled top three in my lifetime. I’ve grown up with Hayden, (Justin) Langer and (Ricky) Ponting,” Broad said.

Alerted to Broad’s remarks, Di Venuto quipped: “Oh, that’s good. Is he a selector?”

Di Venuto also downplayed concerns around veteran Usman Khawaja, noting that the opener had twice been out to umpire’s call lbw decisions this series.