Darren Berry, a former teammate from the same state as Australia, has received a response from head coach Andrew McDonald, who makes it obvious that he doesn’t care much for the Victorians views on Pat Cummins‘ captaincy.
In the fourth Ashes Test, which was drawn, Berry was one of Australia’s sharpest critics. On day three, he started a Twitter rant over Cummins. They included assertions that Cummins ought to give up his captaincy following the Ashes because of his use of the short ball, which Berry called annoying and boring.
Berry had a relationship with a number of Australian athletes, notably McDonald, who he coached at South Australia after serving as his captain at Victoria. McDonald has been a steadfast supporter of Cummins’ leadership and has refuted any calls for the pace bowler to step down.
“I was across those comments from Darren. They were most interesting,”
McDonald said ahead of Thursday’s fifth Ashes Test at The Oval.
“What I would say is leadership takes on all different shapes and forms.
“And if we’re living and dying in the world of tactics only, then I think it’s fair and reasonable to critique some of the execution and tactics that we implemented.
“But to go as far as suggesting that the captain resign post-series I think is a bit far-fetched. There are opinions that we respect and opinions that we don’t.”
McDonald hasn’t spoken to his former teammate or coach about the remarks, and it doesn’t seem likely that he will.
At Old Trafford, Cummins had the worst Test of his career, going 1 for 129 with the bat as England’s all-out assault took hold.
Since then, he has maintained that the captaincy had no effect on his performance and that he is comfortable with the added responsibility on the field.
Australia has won 11 tests and lost four tests under Cummins, winning the World Test Championship and keeping the Ashes in the process.
However, Australia is aware that they must adjust their strategy for Thursday’s final Test at The Oval if they want to win or tie and win their first series in England in 22 years.
In Manchester, Zak Crawley scored a scorching 189 runs off just 181 balls, although they frequently went short and straight to him while failing to take advantage of multiple chances presented outside the off stump for the opener.
McDonald acknowledged that his team’s game plan had fallen apart with the ball, but he insisted that Australia had won the first four Tests and would not enter The Oval without a strategy of attack.
“We’ll revisit those plans and the way that we go about it and the personnel that we pick to execute those plans,”
McDonald said.
“It was a disappointing three days or so. We’re not going to shy away from that. We own it.
“The way that Zak came out and put pressure on us, you’ve got to give some credit to the opposition as well. But this team’s played some great cricket over the last eight months. So to judge us on three days would be very harsh.”