Australia national cricket team chief selector George Bailey has opened up about the selection of the Test squad for the rest of the 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
George Bailey's statement came amid allegations of bias and favoritism by the selectors towards youngster Nathan McSweeney's snobbery.
Nathan McSweeney dropped a pick to Sam Konstas
The 2024-25 Border-Gavaskar Trophy is currently tied at 1-1 with two matches remaining. Australian batsmen, barring Travis Head, have not been at their best and poor starts have been a major concern for the Aussies.
Usman Khawaja and his new opening partner Nathan McSweeney have failed miserably against India's spearhead Jasprit Bumrah in all matches. Therefore, the selection committee had to take a bold decision.
The George Bailey-led panel dropped Nathan McSweeney after back-to-back failures and added 19-year-old opening batsman Sam Konstas to the squad.
Notably, Usman Khawaja also looked extremely poor in the series but the ax fell on the newcomer as the veteran was retained in the squad. This led the selectors to face huge criticism.
Also, pacer Jhye Richardson replaced Josh Hazlewood, who is ruled out of the series, Josh Inglis remains as a backup batsman in the team and Beau Webster also retained his place.
Nathan was disappointed – George Bailey
Talking about the selection of teenage batting sensation Sam Konstas, George Bailey stated that the youngster's batting style is quite different from others and they were looking to bowl something different in India. George Bailey stated:
“You can tell the way our front three are playing has been quite similar and we would like the opportunity to throw something different in India off the back of that. If you look at it more broadly, I don't think the first six have quite worked to the level that we need in this series as a whole.
“Think Sam's method, his style, is different to Nathan's, different again to Beau's and Josh's, as well as the other batting options within that team and we think they provide options for a different look and another make-up for the 11th come Boxing Day. “
George Bailey has revealed that Nathan McSweeney is not in a good mood after his snub, but made it clear that selectors still believe in him to succeed at Test level for Australia's national cricket team.
“Nathan was disappointed and really the message to him was, much the same as at the start of the series, that we believe, and that hasn't changed, that he has the ability and the temperament to succeed at Test level, but only given the way the series has played out, we want the option to throw something different in India for the next Test,” added George Bailey.
In the lead-up to the series, he performed incredibly well – George Bailey as Nathan McSweeney
While defending the decision to select Nathan McSweeney for the first three Test matches, George Bailey said the youngster had performed well in domestic cricket in the run-up to the series. He said:
“In the run-up to the series, he performed incredibly well. Think the key around that was his methodology and the way he plays, we don't think he changes much wherever he comes up the order. it worked the way you'd want it to at first, but it's still early in his career.”
Bailey also revealed that there were no discussions to drop Usman Khawaja despite his failures and the same condition was applied to former world No.1 batsman Marnus Labuschagne. He elaborated:
“You always look for your senior players to be leaders in how you play. For Uz in particular, given the lefty's value (he brings it) at the top of the order, there wasn't much consideration to move him. I think Marn as the other side of the top three said he'd like to score, we'd like him to score more but to back up what Andrew said. Perth, Marn is as much about method and intent as it is about result.”