Rob Quiney has urged Australia to stay with Travis Head and David Warner as their opening partnership, but questions are being raised about the influence of chairman George Bailey within the squad.
Bailey was appointed as the new head of selection 14 months ago but was spotted throughout the dismal T20 World Cup campaign and on Thursday night’s matchday against England sitting with players in the canoe.
Former Australia captain Ian Healy wondered why someone with such power within the team would be among the players on matchday.
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“It’s very interesting,” Healy said on his SEN show.
“George Bailey can shoot well, he can provide an extra coach around the traps…but he’s not an extra coach, is he? He’s a coach. I think in-form players don’t wouldn’t mind (having him next to them); I think players in bad shape would hate that and should start taking action.
TWO TEAM MATCH
Australia – David Warner, Travis Head, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood (c)
England – Phil Salt, Jason Roy, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Sam Billings, Moeen Ali (c), Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, David Willey, Adil Rashid
“I think injured type players wearing small or maybe bigger ones wouldn’t be happy to have the chairman of the selectors so close.
“The current mood in this team could change with the selector being so direct and so close.
“If the game isn’t good…they could be exposed. We let out-of-form players stay in this squad at this T20 World Cup and all while the head coach was in the hole and very very close to the personality of the team.
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Bailey was filmed laughing with star duo Warner and Marnus Labuschagne during Thursday night’s opener win over England.
Former Australian batsman Quiney wants Bailey and coach Andrew McDonald to back Head as the man to stay as fly-half ahead of the 2023 World Cup to be held in India next October.
“(Warner and Head) have broken the back of English bowling,” Quiney said on SEN.
“They jumped on David Willey (from England) and they saw his lack of pace and launched their partnership.
“(Head) is still learning about the drummer part.
“Travis needs to identify that he can turn this start into a really big hundred and still win the game.
“It’s that balance between when to pull the trigger and when to shift gears.
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“It will be an exciting 10-12 months for Travis Head for the next World Cup.”
Quiney compared the duo’s new partnership to having a “new girlfriend”, given that Warner and now retired Aaron Finch had been at the top of the Australian one-day command for nearly a decade.
“It’s almost like the new girlfriend comes along and takes over,” Quiney said.
“It was almost like everything was fine.
“147 from 20 overs… It’s a new partnership forming after we’ve seen Warner and Finch at the top of command for so long.”
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Head scored 69 from just 57 balls in the first game of Australia’s first ODI since Finch’s retirement.
Since returning to the one-day roster after more than three years away, Head has averaged 63.2 points — and nearly 65 points as an opener.
Despite rejoicing in Game 1 victory, the Aussies head into Game 2 with lighter pockets after the team were fined for a slow passing rate.
The players received 40 per cent of their match fee for going two overs under the time allowance at Adelaide Oval on Thursday.
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