Healy wants the selectors to have more confidence in the players they choose

Former Australia wicketkeeper Ian Healy has called on Cricket Australia to stop “treating the Australian Test team like a club side” after they decided drop players who were experiencing a tough time during the recently concluded four-Test series against India.

“These players are the best we have and they need to know the selectors love them. It’s time Cricket Australia stopped treating the Australian Test team like a club side,” Healy was quoted by the Courier Mail as saying.

Healy pointed out that the selectors had been making the same mistake throughout the 1980s until Lawrie Sawle, Greg Chappell and Bob Simpson put a new policy in place.

“They started to select players based on character; men such as Geoff Marsh, Dean Jones and Steve Waugh,” Healy said. “And once those players felt comfortable, they found some form at that level.

“Now is the time for the same consistency of selection. We can’t afford the conjecture about who should be batting where.”

Healy urged the selectors to stop constantly rearranging the team and show some patience and confidence in the men they have chosen to represent the country.

“Phil Hughes made two centuries in his first five Tests (and averaged 58.56) and was then dropped,” Healy added. “Steve Waugh averaged 12 at the same time and took 26 Tests to score a century.

“Matthew Wade is good enough to bat at No.6, but the selectors must decide that. Show that confidence; the same for Moises Henriques and Nathan Lyon.”