Test team locked in as Cummins responds to withering criticism
Australia’s selectors have resisted the temptation to make multiple changes for the second Test against Bangladesh which starts in Mackay on Saturday.The selectors considered dropping Nathan Lyon from the XI and playing Scott Boland but eventually decided to retain the 38-year-old off-spinner on Friday.AdvertisementLyon, Australia’s second most prolific Test bowler ever with 568 scalps, was one of many home players to struggle in the shock first Test loss in Darwin.Lyon delivered figures of 1-125 across the two innings as Bangladesh cruised to a historic nine-wicket win.But the only change to the XI is Matt Renshaw replacing Jake Weatherald at the top of the batting order.“A lot of people jump to say that: ‘you have to win everything’ – and obviously, we hope we do,” Australia captain Pat Cummins said.“Particularly home Test matches, we pride ourselves on winning as many as we can. We were nowhere near our best. But I think Bangladesh played really well. They’re a really good cricket team.”The match will be the first Test at Great Barrier Reef Arena.Cummins said the team had watched an Australia A vs India A match from 2024 to help predict the conditions.Advertisement“Looked like it kind of got better to bat on the longer the game went on, but it’s a couple of years ago.”Test legend Ricky Ponting told Triple M that the selectors had to start introducing younger players.Renshaw is 30.“It (Darwin XI) was the oldest team Australia’s put on the park since 1928. Only one player under the age of 30 and that’s Cameron Green,” Ponting said.AdvertisementAdvertisement“The current group, they’re going to have six or seven guys retiring at the same time. I’ve been there when I was captain. It’s not a nice place to be. Trying to regenerate all at once is really difficult.“I think they missed a trick last week, I would’ve had a couple of young guys in for that Test match.“I thought it was the right time to look at some of the young boys because you then know with that amount of time, if you look at them, and it doesn’t work you’ve still then got time to go back to the older ones.Advertisement“But if you hang onto the older ones as long as they have done it just makes the change even harder.”
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