Saker slams Australia’s pace selections

Cricket365
December 8, 2015

Former England bowling coach, and current Victoria mentor, David Saker has labelled uncapped paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile's Test selection as 'ridiculous' in light of his lack of game time.

Coulter-Nile was named in the squad to face the West Indies this month, replacing the injured Mitchell Starc, and Saker said he was shocked that CA picked the Warriors player, given he's played no red ball cricket this season.

Saker told SEN: "I'm a bit surprised they've gone for Coulter-Nile seeing as he hasn't played. To me that’s ridiculous.

"You've got three or four other guys that would have been first picked before him but that’s the way they've gone."

Saker conceded that Coulter-Nile's pace was a valuable asset at home, but said he continued to be surprised by how the selectors tend to go for pace instead of accuracy away from home.

He added: "I sometimes do think that the Australian selectors do have a lot of importance on pace, but in Australia pace actually does produce more wickets – they've done studies on that.

"Away from Australia, it isn't pace (that gets wickets).

"I was really shocked in England (with Australia's fast bowler selections); it isn't about pace, it's about putting the ball in the right area and they picked a real pace attack."

Saker was, however, pleased about the selection of Victoria paceman Scott Boland as a standby for the Test in Hobart: "I'm not sure what he'd be clocked at, but he's no slower than anyone else going around Australia at the moment.

"He was seriously quick and had some of the young Western Australian batsmen scrambling around the crease a bit."