Australian spin legend Shane Warner on Wednesday (January 20) said “there will be a huge fallout” in the national team after an embarrassing Test series loss to an under-strength India on January 19.
The injury-ravaged young India team crushed a full-strength Australia at their fortress The Gabba, Brisbane by three wickets in the fourth and final Test to complete a historic 2-1 Test series win and retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the second consecutive time on Australian soil.
After India’s historic and probably the best-ever Test series away win, Warner has pointed out that the hosts had so many chances to crush Team India in the recent Test series, but they failed to grab. He further said Australia’s tactics and their performance will be questioned.
As reported by Fox Cricket, Warne stated: “I think there'll be a huge fallout from this (defeat). There are not too many times that you lose to the second or third (choice) side.”
He further added, “Their (Australia) tactics will come into question, and they have to. Bowlers will come into question, people's spot in the team will come into question. It has to. You can't just deflect it and flick it off and say India were too good for us.”
Praising India, former Aussie said: “That's not taking anything away from those Indian guys that played but their first selection side, there's probably only two or three players in that side who would play.”
Criticizing Australia, Warne said: “Yes they were, but Australia had so many chances in this series to bury it and crush India, but they couldn't do it. They just couldn't do it.”
He was also critical of Tim Paine's captaincy, saying: “I think at times their tactics haven't been good enough, and I suppose that's got to come down to Tim Paine as captain.”
Warne signed off by saying, “It's not just Tim Paine's fault, the bowlers are allowed to say 'Tim I want to do this', so, it's a combination between the bowlers and the captain. But at the end of the day, you are captain, you have to take responsibility. He'll be disappointed.”
(With PTI Inputs)
