Not Pakistan, Australia’s priority lies in Border Gavaskar series: Gillespie

Pakistan’s interim white-ball head coach Jason Gillespie expressed concerns over Cricket Australia’s priority in the ongoing home summer. Gillespie, a former Australia cricketer himself, was surprised with the board hardly promoting Pakistan’s white-ball tour to Australia. He admitted that Cricket Australia’s priority was the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy. He pointed out that the official broadcasters for Australia’s home summer make great promos, but there was no hype for the Pakistan series. Despite this, Pakistan hammered Australia to win the 3-match ODI series 2-1 vs Australia.

“To be honest, I pretty much saw no promotion of our one-day series by Cricket Australia, which was a bit of a surprise. It’s pretty obvious that they’re prioritizing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against India because I saw no promotion of this series. Fox do a great job promoting but it was pretty clear to us where CA’s priorities lie. That’s their prerogative and their decision, but I just didn’t see any advertising or promotion of this one-day series at all,” Gillespie told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“Pleasing to beat Australia convincingly”

Gillespie is expecting the Australian batters to come stronger after their poor show in the ODIs. He was also pleased with the ‘convincing’ win in the ODI series over the World Champions Australia.

“What we saw in this series is our bowling exposed some flaws in the Australian batting. I’m sure the Australians will look to right some wrongs and improve some things. That’s what good players and good teams do; you learn and adjust and adapt and be ready for the next challenge. It was pleasing not just to beat Australia but to beat them pretty convincingly,” he added.

Australia lose ODI series vs Pakistan

Many experts and former cricketers like Michael Clarke questioned the management about resting all the key players for the 3rd and final ODI vs Pakistan. All the participants who will likely feature in the playing XI vs India in the 1st Test did not take the field in the series decider against Pakistan. Clarke raised concerns that Australia did not care about losing an ODI series to Pakistan on their own home soil. Pakistan registered their very first ODI series win in 22 years on Australian soil.

Australia captain Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood were rested for the 3rd and final ODI match vs Pakistan.