Former Australian skipper Michael Clarke has questioned Steve Smith’s tactic of not using Glenn Maxwell more often during India’s innings and also threw a dice on as to why Smith himself didn’t bowl his part-time leg-spin when the other bowlers were getting short of the ideas.
India scored a whopping score of 9/603 and took 210 overs to reach the milestone, and as per yahoo sports, it was Australia’s longest time on the pitch during a Test innings since 1975. In the process, Maxwell, who replaced injured allrounder Mitch Marsh in the squad, only bowled four overs. While Josh Hazlewood (44 overs), Pat Cummins (39 overs) and Steve O’Keefe (77 overs) bowled their career high overs and hence, the workload was quite evident.
Lyon, on the other hand, bowled 46 overs but was unable to get anything major out of it. Aussie’s coach Darren Lehmann, however, gave a statement in favour of his captain.
“That’s the captain’s call obviously. We did speak about it, chopping and changing it a little bit. The game was always on a knife’s edge so you always want your best spinners going,” Lehmann said.
“(Maxwell) probably could have bowled a few more overs but I thought the spinners toiled really hard as well.
“That’s a call the captain makes out there and I’m happy with that.”
Michael, on his part, varied in his opinion while commentating.
On good batting wickets, if you keep doing the same things then you’re going to keep getting the same results,” Clarke said.
“Keep him (Maxwell) involved in the game as much as you can. Because he’s got that Midas touch about him, he just finds a way to get a run-out or a wicket.
“Australia missed a trick yesterday. They were quite defensive with their fields, a new batsman came out and there were three or four guys on the boundary.”
