Legendary Australian cricketer Ian Chappell has made a bold comment on the national side’s latest humiliating whitewash at the hands of England in the One Day Internationals, saying he thought the White-ball series was “going to be tough for the Kangaroos, but never thought will end in this way.”

Chappell told ESPNCricinfo, “I thought the series was going to be tough for the Australians, but I didn’t see it as bad as it has been. I expected that the bowling would struggle because you lost your three frontline bowlers [Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, and Pat Cummins], but the batting hasn’t held up its end of the bargain either.”

Chappell further went on to note that this England series defeat shows how young Australian side badly needs the banned Steve Smith and David Warner back in the side.

Former Australian captain further added, “I’ll be very surprised if Smith and Warner don’t walk straight back into the Australian side. They’re far away the two best batsmen. It doesn’t matter what version of the game you’re playing, they’re the two best players.”

He further explained, “What’s pretty concerning for Australia is their problem with their spin bowling. They get away to some good starts but the opposition always seems to pull things back by using spin bowlers in the middle overs. In the World Cup, the problem will be relieved a little bit with Smith and Warner back. Smith, in particular, is a very good player of spin bowling. So that will give them a bit more strength in the middle order but once you show this weakness, the opposition sides are going to play on it and there are a lot of good spin bowlers at the moment.”

Chappell also believes that Australia needs to regain confidence to settle down before the World Cup 2019 in England.

Chappell signed off by saying, “The problem is, this close to the World Cup, you want to have your side pretty well settled. Well, the Australians are far from settled and that will be a major concern.”