Kim Hughes slams Australian selectors for being 'too precious' with Australian bowlers
The Australian selectors opted to play pace bowler Mitchell Johnson in WACA nets alongside the team's bowling coach, Troy Cooley rather than allowing him to play for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Western-Australia-c865 in the four-day Sheffield Shield fixture against
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Queensland-c834 which gets underway in Brisbane from December 10th. The move shows that the selection panel is seriously considering calling him back in the third Ashes Test against England.
But the cautious approach of the Australian selectors towards the bowlers has irritated former Australia captain Kim Hughes as he said that dropping Johnson from a domestic game before a likely recall would be an ill advised move.
Hughes slammed the selectors for being ‘too precious’ with the bowlers.
"Dennis Lillee would play 80 days-plus. Today's bowlers play 40 days. We've just become too precious. We're wrapping our elite players in cotton wool."
Mitchel Johnson, the 2009 ICC Test Player of the Year, was dropped from a Test series for the first time in his three-year cricketing career after he returned wicketless in the drawn opening Ashes Test played at the Gabba last
month. Dough Bollinger and Ryan Harris were included into the side for the Adelaide Test but the English’s top order once again put the Australian attack to the sword scoring 620 for 5 in their first innings as Australia lost the match by an innings and 71
runs.
Johnson is in Perth to work with bowling coaches on his technique in time for the third Ashes Test which commences in Perth from December 16th. But the former Australia captain said that the pace bowler should have been
allowed to play in the Sheffield Shield match as he has already spent a week bowling in the nets so he should have be given a chance to bowl in match conditions as well.
"Resting Johnson would be absolutely ridiculous," said Hughes. "The bloke couldn't bowl a hoop down a hill. He's spent a week in the nets and now he's going to spend another week in the nets. It's insane. We need this bloke bowling
in match conditions. I don't care how much work you do in the nets, you need to bowl in the middle," he added further.
The lack of incision of the revamped Australian attack at Adelaide has buoyed the chances of a recall for Johnson as the Australian selectors know that the 29-year-old has the pace and late-swing that can be deadly for the opposition
line-up and can bowl random brutal spells, which is something Australia dearly needs after picking up only 6 wickets for 1137 runs in their last two innings. England is leading the five-match series by 1-0.
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