Australia’s coach Andrew McDonald has fired again at former state teammate Darren Berry, making clear he has little time for the Victorian’s opinions on Pat Cummins’ captaincy.
Berry was amongst Australia’s harshest critics throughout the drawn fourth Ashes Test, launching a tirade of tweets about Cummins on day three.
Included in them had been claims Cummins ought to resign as captain after the Ashes, attributable to short-ball techniques Berry labelled as each maddening and unwatchable.
Berry has historical past with a number of of the Australians, together with McDonald, who he captained at Victoria and later coached at South Australia.
McDonald has been a staunch supporter of Cummins’ captaincy, and shot down any suggestion the tempo bowler ought to resign.
“I was across those comments from Darren. They were most interesting,” McDonald mentioned forward of Thursday’s fifth Ashes Test at The Oval.
“What I would say is leadership takes on all different shapes and forms.
“And if we’re residing and dying on this planet of techniques solely, then I feel it is truthful and cheap to critique a few of the execution and techniques that we applied.
“But to go as far as suggesting that the captain resign post-series I think is a bit far fetched.
“There are opinions that we respect and opinions that we do not.”
McDonald has not spoken to his former teammate and coach over the comments, and appears unlikely to do so.
Cummins endured the worst Test of his career at Old Trafford, going for 1-129 with the ball as England’s all-out attack took hold.
The 30-year-old has since insisted the captaincy did not have an impact on his performance, adamant he is fine with the workload on the field.
Under Cummins Australia has won 11 Tests and lost four, winning the World Test Championship and retaining the Ashes along the way.
Australia, however, do know tactics need to change for Thursday’s final Test at The Oval if they are to secure their first series victory in England in 22 years with a win or draw.
They went short and straight to Zak Crawley too often in his blistering 189 from 181 balls in Manchester, while numerous chances created outside off stump to the opener did not go to hand.
McDonald conceded his side’s plans had unravelled with the ball, but was insistent Australia had been the better team in the first four Tests and would not go to The Oval without answers.
“We’ll revisit these plans and the best way that we go about it and the personnel that we decide to execute these plans,” McDonald mentioned.
“It was a disappointing three days or so. We’re not going to shrink back from that. We personal it.
“The way that Zak came out and put pressure on us, you’ve got to give some credit to the opposition as well.
“But this group’s performed some nice cricket during the last eight months. So to evaluate us on three days could be very harsh.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
