Cricket Update: Strauss calls Johnson’s dropping a ‘big call’
Andrew Strauss, the England captain has termed http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s decision to drop Mitchell Johnson, the strike Australian bowler, from Adelaide Test squad as a ‘big call’.
"Mitchell's been a very good performer for Australia over a number of years and has been spearheading their attack, so it's quite a big call for them to leave him out," said Strauss.
Mitchell Johnson, the 2009 ICC Test Player of the Year, was dropped from this week's second Ashes Test at the Adelaide Oval because, according to the home captain Ricky Ponting, it was felt by the selectors that the pace bowler was not in his full form during
the drawn Gabba Test where Johnson finished 0 for 170. It was Johnson’s ever first wicket-less Test since debuting in November 2007 which led to his axing from a Test squad for the first time in his career.
Strauss, on the basis of his international experience, suggested that lack of stability in the team is not an encouraging factor for the team aiming to win. He further added that if a side is not sure about its Playing XIs that means its players would be
concerned about their place in the team and this affects the performance of players quite adversely. However, the visiting captain said that the chaos in opposition camps is a positive sign for them and they would try their absolute best to capitalize on it.
"So in that sense it's a good thing for us, but we have to be slightly wary of the guys who they now have in their squad,”
said Strauss. "They're good performers, they've had a lot of success in Test cricket, so it's not like they dragging someone from obscurity, we have to be good enough to contend with them."
The lack of penetration of Australian bowlers made the selectors recall pacers duo of Ryan Harris and Doug Bollinger to take, in all probability, the place of Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus in the second Ashes Test. With Johnson, already axed from the squad,
pressure appears to be on Hilfenhaus, who picked up Strauss’s wicket on the third ball of the series but then finished wicket-less from his remaining fifty overs.
But Harris, despite his startling performance in Domestic cricket, might face concerns of selectors over his ability to make a tough five-day long appearance on the turf so early after recovering from a knee cartilage surgery.
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