Warne asks Oz selectors not to panic and make wholesale changes

SYDNEY - Legendary spinner Shane Warne has asked the Australian selectors not to panic and make large scale changes after the team lost the Ashes series to England.

Australia lost the fourth Test by an innings and 157 runs to go 2-1 down in the five-match series, and Ponting returned scores of 10 and 20 to leave him with only 113 runs from eight innings.

“This Test looks to be one the English players will always cherish, but Australia’s selectors shouldn’t panic,” The Herald Sun quoted Warne, as saying.

“For the visitors, they’ve retained the Ashes in Australia for the first time in 24 years in front of a succession of big crowds. For the Australia players, they will be remembered as the side that gave up the little urn for the third time in four series,” he said.

“Going on to Sydney next week for a dead rubber with the Ashes gone is tough for Australia. It would be easy to make wholesale changes and look to the future, but you really have to sit down, study it and ask, ‘Who do we identify in first-class cricket who could have a long career for Australia?’” Warne asked.

He further said: “Do we really want to chop and change radically? We still want to win the Test match and hopefully level the series - there’s no real point in making wholesale changes.”

“A change of pace and variety is essential. If you’ve got Shane Watson in the side, you’ve got your extra seamer. A spinner or two aside, now’s not the time to make wholesale changes, not for the last Test match of the summer,” Warne added. (ANI)