Former England player Nick Compton slammed England’s selections in the ongoing third Ashes Test in Melbourne. Compton said that the calls have been “woeful” and “reactive,” and also questioned their decision to play Jos Buttler as he believes there are better wicketkeeper-batsman in England as well.
However, the tourists made four changes for the must-win Boxing Day Test. Rory Burns, Ollie Pope, Stuart Broad, and Chris Woakes were replaced by Zak Crawley, Jonny Bairstow, Jack Leach, and Mark Wood. However, Nick Compton stated that a lack of planning from England make things worse for them. Speaking to Fox Sports, Nick Compton said:
“Let’s be frank, the selections have been woeful and reactive. And the last thing you want to be in any series, especially one where the coaches and managers have gone on about their preparation and having so much planning for so long, clearly there’s been so little planning and it’s all reactive.”
Compton further added:
“It’s another reactive decision to a pretty obvious equation. They didn’t have much choice. Carry on what they’re doing or try and get the team right having hopefully learnt from the mistakes of the past two Test matches.”
Jos Buttler’s not even in the top four-five keeper’s in the country – Nick Compton
Nick Compton had also asked how Jos Buttler can keep wickets, considering Ben Foakes and John Simpson are better with the gloves as well.
His comments came as Buttler faced a backlash in the second Test in Adelaide after he dropped a few catches, including Marnus Labuschagne in the first innings as well.
While talking about that, he said:
“Jos Buttler’s not even in the top four-five keeper’s in the country, so why isn’t there a specialist playing and again it’s because the top six isn’t good enough. Ben Foakes and John Simpson are the best two keeper batters in the UK, so there’s all sorts of issues. I think the changes are necessary.”
“You’ve got to feel sorry for Jack Leach. I mean, the guy’s hardly played a game in eight months, clearly and obviously the management don’t rate him, neither does the captain, he didn’t play on a spinning track in Adelaide and they bowled three spinners – Malan, Root and even Robinson bowled – so if you’re Jack Leach you must be sitting there going, ‘they just don’t rate me’. Now to be called in and the ‘saviour of the Ashes’, because if England are going to win the spinner’s going to perform at some point, especially in Sydney,” Nick Compton concluded.
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