Oz selectors’ ‘chopping and changing’ regime ruining bowlers’ performances: Clark

SYDNEY - One of the major problems confronting the Australian bowling unit at the moment is the confusion surrounding places in the team, fast bowler Stuart Clark has said.

“Once again we are left to ponder the chopping and changing by Australia’s selectors. I can’t quite work out the logic behind the omission of Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus for the second Test, only to bring them back for the third,” Clark wrote in an article for the Sydney Morning Herald

“And what of Doug Bollinger missing the Perth squad altogether? Admittedly, Adelaide was not his finest hour, but is one game enough to make a judgment call?”

Clark further stressed that when a bowler feels under pressure, “he will often lose sight of bowling plans and try to take a wicket with every other ball”.

“That might sound reasonable in theory but, with Test pitches around the world generally flat, it generally serves only to relieve the pressure on batsmen,” the right-arm fast bowler added.

He said that the current bowling unit is finding it difficult to work as a unit because they feel like they are playing for their place in the team.

“For some of the players, lean tours of India and England have eroded their confidence, and this is made worse when the selectors’ axe is hovering. To me, it has looked like six months of pressure and self-doubt have surfaced in the past two Tests. And none of this would have been helped by the squad announcement yesterday, with players being reinstated less than a fortnight after they were dropped,” Clark wrote. (ANI)