Tubby worried about lack of young batsmen

Australia

Former Australia batsman and captain Mark Taylor is concerned that Chris Rogers' retirement after the Ashes will badly expose how inexperienced the batsmen are at Test level, especially in foreign conditions.

Rogers, at nearly 40 and with two Tests to go before retirement, has the most experience batting in England on anyone in the team, and it showed on day one at Edgbaston where he scored 52 of the team's total of 136.

Taylor fears that the selectors are not doing enough to pick younger batsmen, to give them time to get used to non-Aussie conditions over a few years. The swinging conditions saw James Anderson take six very quick wickets.

Taylor said on the CA website: "It's a concern for our young batsmen. I'd like to see more young players come into the Australian side.

"That's been the concern that there's been no young state cricketer force his way into this team.

"It's been great to see Chris Rogers resurrect his Test career, Adam Voges to get picked very late.

"But it's always a worry when you've got older players coming into your side because it suggests your young players aren't learning the game well enough at 23 or 24 years of age.

"We saw what Chris Rogers did today how he left the ball nicely, made the bowlers bowl to him and then he still prospered.

"We need to start teaching our young players to play that way for Test match conditions."

Taylor added that while the players were eager to do well, they'd not yet learned how to negate the swing in the air, and were pushing at the ball rather that waiting to see what it does.

He said: "There are a couple of technical flaws there that are a concern for me – batsmen still pushing very hard at the ball when it's doing a little bit.

"In Test match cricket, the ball is allowed to do a little bit and you've got to get through that.

"You saw that Chris Rogers got through it okay. Unfortunately he was running out of partners very quickly."

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