Australia’s stand-in coach David Saker, on Tuesday, lamented that his team is “playing scared” after the visitors succumbed to a 1-4 One-day International series loss against India.
“But when you’re losing, you play scared, you go insular and you start looking after number one. I think there’s little bits of that. It’s not dramatic and we know we can fix that. I think the talent is there,” Saker was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
Saker, who is deputising for head coach Darren Lehmann during the series, said that the team’s regular collapses stemmed from a lack of confidence, and denied that it was an issue with the personnel in the team. First-choice wicketkeeper Matthew Wade and big-hitter Glenn Maxwell were dropped mid-way through the series.
After yet another comprehensive defeat – by seven wickets in Nagpur – the world champions have crashed to their eleventh defeat in 13 completed games away from home. “It’s not mainly personnel, I think it’s mainly just their mindset and where they are in their games,” the 51-year-old said. “A lot of them are playing a little bit scared, which we try not to do. We try and make sure they play with a lot of freedom and express themselves as much as they can. Obviously, our away form has been quite dreadful so we have to have a look at that. The next World Cup is away [from home].
‘We’ll be really determined to bounce back’
Australia have made several changes from their Twenty20 International side with Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, James Faulkner and Hilton Cartwright making way for Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Moises Henriques, Tim Paine and Andrew Tye. “I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom, I think there’s some talent in that team. But there’s no doubt we have to probably re-jig a few things and see where we’re at,” Saker said.
“Bringing almost half the squad in who haven’t been here for the four weeks so far is going to be exciting, and exciting for them. In Twenty20 cricket we’re definitely going to go out there (to) express ourselves and have some fun. After a long tour, India can sometimes get you down and wear you down but getting five or six new guys into the squad after what’s happened in the one-day series, we’ll be really determined to bounce back,” the 51-year-old added. India and Australia face off at Ranchi on October 7 for the first T20I.