Report: Australia Likely To Bring Back Specialist Batting Coach For Ashes And Beyond
Updated - 13 May 2021, 09:18 PM
Following a humbling Test series defeat against the Indian team sans its first-choice players during the home summer, Australia is likely to bring back a specialist batting coach for the upcoming Ashes and future Test assignments.
One of the major reasons behind Australia losing the Test series to India apart from the fact that their bowlers failed to get the job done on the final day of the last two Tests, was the inability of their top-6 sans the duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to stitch big scores.
Interestingly, Cricket Australia had made the post of batting coach- a position held by former England international Graeme Hick- redundant as part of their cost-cutting process in the wake of the pandemic.
However, a review into the reasons why Australia lost the series has indicated that the home team would have been well-served had they had a specialist batting coach at their disposal.
“Australia’s uncertain top six are likely to be bolstered by a full-time batting coach or specialist consultants for the Ashes and beyond, after a review of the series defeat to India investigated whether the home side’s chances of victory against India last summer may have been helped by the presence of an additional skills coach,” said a report on ESPNcricinfo.com.
The Tim Paine-led unit has always had a specialist batting coach at its disposal in the past decade or so.
While current coach Justin Langer and Michael di Venuto served the role between 2009-2012 and 2013-16 respectively, Graeme Hick had held the position since 2016 until it was made redundant in mid-2020.
Former captains Ricky Ponting and Steve Waugh could be frontrunners for the job.
