Former captain Steve Waugh believes Australia will struggle to rebound from their crushing loss to England in the second Ashes Test, but urged selectors to seek stability rather than continuing to chop and change.
Opener Simon Katich will miss the rest of the series with an Achilles problem, with Phil Hughes the likely replacement, and questions persist about the selection of Marcus North and the composition of the bowling attack. But Waugh suggested the selectors needed to pick a group of players and stick with them.
Selectors overhaul bowling attack
“It’s going to be difficult, it’s almost like the shoe is on the other foot, we’ve reversed roles,” Waugh said.
“We’re sort of used to doing a demolition job on England and I know how hard England found it to come back from that situation, so it won’t be easy for Australia to come back.
“I don’t know what the selectors are going to do, because they have chopped and changed I think probably too much in the last 12 months.
“You just look at the bowling, they’ve got through so many bowlers, Clint McKay, Peter George, then we’ve got (Ben) Hilfenhaus and (Mitchell) Johnson.
“Where do you go if you’ve just discarded these guys?
“(Spinner Nathan) Hauritz … do you bring him back now?
“I think they are in a bit of a quandary as to what to do.
“This is a situation similar to back in 85-86 when the selectors sat down and thought ‘this is a group of cricketers we’re going to stick with through thick and thin and let’s back them’.
“They are almost at the point now where they’ve got to identify players and say ‘righto, we’re going to stick with them.
“I think we’ve just got to get a stable side in there.
