Melbourne, Jan 31 (IANS): Former Australia captain Aaron Finch believes that the side's bowling attack has been bailing the team out of tough situations in their Test matches of the international home summer, adding that the numbers of the middle-order batters don’t make for a great look.
In the Tests at home, Australia had a 3-0 series win over Pakistan and even won the Adelaide Test by ten wickets. But in the second Test against the West Indies at The Gabba in Brisbane, Australia suffered a collapse of 8/94 in a chase of 216, thus suffering a shock eight-run loss to the visitors’.
"Think the bowlers have been the ones who have got them out of jail a few times, but also Usman Khawaja…and Mitch Marsh is also pulling his weight in that regard. They're not great numbers for a middle order that I think have got some much talent. The hundreds column is a concern for me. Guys are getting starts, and that's reflected in the numbers, it's not like they're averaging six," said Finch to ESPN's Around The Wicket show.
At The Gabba, Australia were reduced to 54/5 before Usman Khawaja, Alex Carey and Pat Cummins led the recovery with the bat. In their home summer, only David Warner and Travis Head scored centuries, while Marsh had two scores in 90s while Steve Smith carried his bat through for 91 not out at Brisbane.
Top-order batter Marnus Labuschagne made just 18 runs in three innings against West Indies. "If you have a bad series in two Tests like Marnus (Labuschagne) that's okay, everyone will have that at some point, but there's not enough hundreds. There's a few cracks that have been papered over from Usman Khawaja and the bowlers who have done a brilliant job for a long time."
"Think that's been highlighted in his (Labuschagne) strike-rate as well. You get into a defensive frame of mind where you think about survival first and I'll cash in later on. But the wicket's they've been playing on, you don't get that opportunity to cash in - it's not like they flatten out and become absolute roads and you can bat for two days, we just don't see that anymore," concluded Finch.