Cricketer-turned-commentator Simon Doull feels Kane Richardson should be picked in place of Pat Cummins in the T20 World Cup as he offers variations, something which Australia’s bowling lack.
Cummins and Mitchell Starc looked toothless as Aussie bowlers conceded 200 runs during their T20 World Cup opener against New Zealand to eventually go down by 89 runs on Saturday.
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“I think Australia would be concerned, I’d be concerned with some of the parts of the bowling. I said the other night in the warm-up match, I feel personally that Pat Cummins shouldn’t be playing in this T20 side,” Doull said on Digital Daily.
“I think Kane Richardson should be playing. I feel that he offers them a few variations that they just don’t have. It’s same-same. It’s pace on, pace on, pace on. Starc, (Josh) Hazlewood, Cummins – they don’t have a really good change-up bowler.
“We saw from Tim Southee tonight (Saturday) with some of those change-ups that that certainly played a part from New Zealand’s point of view. So I feel that Richardson should be in the side (though) it’s a big call though to drop.”
New Zealand bundled out Australia for 111 to register their first win against their trans-Tasman rivals in Australia in any format since December 2011.
“That’s a drubbing, that is a proper win and it really hurts Australia’s net run rate for the future in the tournament, and it just helps New Zealand enormously,” Doull said.
“I gave them about an 80/20 chance of winning, or a 20 percent chance basically, but they surprised me.”
While Finn Allen (42 off 16) provided New Zealand an explosive start, Devon Conway slammed an unbeaten 92 off 58 balls as NZ posted an imposing 200 for three.
The bowlers then complemented the batting effort with pacer Southee (2.1-0-6-3) and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (4-0-31-3) leading the attack to bowl Australia out in 17.1 overs.
“I think sometimes we look too much at poor performances and don’t pay enough credit to the opposition,” Doull said.
“I think Finn Allen took it away from them in that early stanza he stood up, and the one thing about Finn Allen, he doesn’t have any of that hangover from last year because he wasn’t there, he didn’t bat in that game.”
Heaping praise on Conway, the former pacer said: “The way Devon plays and the way that Kane Williamson plays is allowed in that case because of Finn Allen as well.
“He’s (Conway) a typical sort of opening batter that just has an array of shots that allows him to be good enough in the T20 format, and that cover drive is as pure as most in the world at the moment.”
“He anchored that innings beautifully.”
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