adminCoach Darren Lehmann has criticised Australia’s faltering batsmen and said their careers are on the line after losing the Ashes series in England.
The tourists, chasing a victory target of 299, crumbled from 109-0 to 224 all out as they lost the fourth Test to go 3-0 down in the best-of-five series.Asked if careers were in jeopardy, Lehmann said: “Yep, there’s nothing wrong with that.
“The blokes have to learn. If they don’t, we’ll find blokes that will.”
Lehmann replaced Mickey Arthur just 16 days before the Ashes series got under way, but he has failed to engineer a turnaround in the side’s form following the 4-0 Test series defeat in India earlier this year.
Australia lost the first two Tests of this series at Trent Bridge and Lord’s respectively but had a chance of reducing the deficit in Durham. Chris Rogers and David Warner put on a century opening partnership in their second innings to give them hope of reaching the 299 victory target.
But Usman Khawaja, Michael Clarke, Steven Smith, Shane Watson and Brad Haddin mustered just 50 runs between them as Australia capitulated.
England now hold an unassailable 3-0 lead heading to the fifth and final Test, which starts at The Oval on Wednesday, 21 August.
Australia’s misfiring batting line-up has only passed 300 once in eight innings during the Ashes series.
Watson, Khawaja, Smith, Ed Cowan and Phil Hughes have all struggled for runs during the series and Lehmann appears to be losing patience.-BBC.
Online Reporter