'Most ridiculous series': England great follows Mitchell Marsh's 'outrageous' remark over scheduling of IND vs AUS T20Is
Ahead of the start of the fifth and final match of the contest in Bengaluru, the ex-England captain followed Marsh's remark by calling the contest "ridiculous".
Teams might have to take a shorter route to prepare for the T20 World Cup next year, which is scheduled to take place in another seven months, yet the scheduling of the five-match T20I series between India and Australia has received heavy criticism with Aussie all-rounder Mitchell Marsh being among the first to criticise the "outrageous" timing of it. Days later, ahead of the start of the fifth and final match of the contest in Bengaluru, a former England captain followed it up by calling the contest "ridiculous".
Marsh was among the five Australian cricketers from the victorious World Cup squad who had skipped the T20I series in India. The series started on November 23, four days after the two sides faced each other in the ODI World Cup in Ahmedabad. David Warner pulled out of the contest as well while seven players from the World Cup team that comprised Steve Smith, Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell stayed back.
India vs Australia 5th T20I Live Score
Later, ahead of the third match, Australia made more changes to their squad as it was announced that six of those seven players who stayed back for the T20I series would be sent back home. Zampa and Smith left for Australia before the Guwahati game while Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Inglis and Sean Abbott took the flight post the match.
Speaking to SEN Radio, Marsh admitted that while he enjoys the opportunity of representing his country in international cricket, he stressed on the importance of a break after an arduous World Cup campaign.
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“Yeah it was pretty outrageous for the guys that had to stay behind,” he admitted. “It’s a fine line because we’ve got to respect the fact we’re playing for Australia and it’s a series against India which is always really big. But there’s also the human side of it, the boys have just won a World Cup and probably deserve to celebrate for a while and get home to their families. It’s an interesting one. You’d hope there’s not too many of those series put on after big tournaments again.”
Travis Head remained the only player from the World Cup side to have stayed back till the end of the contest. Speaking with Adam Gilchrist on Club Prairie Fire podcast, the hero of Australia's World Cup final win against India was trolled for being the only player to stick with the T20I side. Former England cricketer Michael Vaughan later shared a clip of that discussion on X to lambast the scheduling of the series.
"The most ridiculous series … Non of them should have been playing …," he posted.
This was the second time that Vaughan had slammed the timing of this T20I series. Even before the World Cup final, the veteran batter had taken to X to post: "It doesn’t right with me that the 2 finalists 4 days later will start a T20 series against each other .. why can’t we allow players the chance to have a moments rest after a WC or whoever wins the chance to celebrate properly for a couple of weeks .. It’s complete greed and over kill (sic)."
