Published: Sep 02, 2015, 07:01 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 02, 2015, 07:01 PM (IST)
Australia’s chairman of selectors Rod Marsh has admitted that complacency was one of the major reasons for his side’s embarrassing defeat in the Ashes 2015 last month. Australia, who were expected to win the Ashes 2015 in England and end their 14-year drought, lost the series 3-2 as they were found wanting on many areas. Australia suffered batting collapses twice — at Edgbaston in the third Test and in Trent Bridge in the fourth — which were the main reasons for their failures. However, Australia were impressive in the second Test at Lord’s and in the fifth Test, wherein they registered big wins. SCORECARD: England vs Australia 1st ODI at Southampton
Marsh, according to ESPNCricinfo, admitted that there were more reasons to Australia’s loss than just the selection issues. “When we left Lord’s I thought ‘we will win the Ashes’ because we’d played that badly at Cardiff, we played that well here, then we were just going to win,” the former cricketer said. ALSO READ: Shane Watson finds support in Glenn Maxwell after freakish dismissal in one-off T20I
Marsh continued, “If that’s complacency, then yes we were complacent. But I think we all thought we’d broken their back at Lord’s with such an emphatic victory. Geez we were wrong. We were that wrong!” ALSO READ: David Warner, Steven Smith’s consistency across all formats is a benchmark, says Glenn Maxwell
Australia are now gearing up for a five-match One-Day International (ODI) series against England, which begins on Thursday with the first game to be played at Southampton. It will be the beginning of a new era as far as Australia are concerned, as Steven Smith will be leading them for the first time in a full series. Australia will also be without their main bowlers Mitchell Johnson and Josh Hazlewood, who have headed back home to prepare for the next Test assignments.
