Bailey: Bird baffled by batting demands

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Australia fast bowler Jackson Bird is confused by his omission from the Test squad to face South Africa, according to State skipper George Bailey.

Bird was not picked for the first Test against South Africa due to his batting being worse than that of Peter Siddle and uncapped Joe Mennie.

But Bailey says Bird is ‘confused’ by this, given he is not actually a batsman, and has been in impressive form in the Sheffield Shield for Tasmania.

Bailey told the Hobart Mercury: “He was pretty confused with the message he got, which I think was fair enough too.

“Because he was the only bowler who did particularly well for us and once again he was pretty much the lone bowler last week (in the Shield) that did the job that we needed him to do in that first innings and held it together.

“For him getting back into the Australian side he just needs to keep doing what he’s been doing with the ball and I don’t know what the batting stuff is but I’m sure someone will sort that out.”

Bailey added: “He actually took not being selected particularly well in terms of the guys that they picked.

“You want a bit of clarity around that, but the message given (about batting) kind of clouded it a little bit.

“The big thing for him is that if he keeps bowling well there will be an opportunity – there’s plenty of cricket to come.”

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