There’s no excuse, Michael Clarke says. It’s just unacceptable.
Australia’s Test captain says his tally of 57 runs in the two-Test series against Pakistan is not good enough.
Clarke admitted Australia had been totally outplayed in the United Arab Emirates in the series which Pakistan claimed 2-0, their first series win over Australia since 1994.
“I have been hitting a lot of balls. I haven’t played as much cricket as I would have liked,” said Clarke, who skipped last month’s one-day series in the UAE against Pakistan because of a hamstring injury.
“I don’t have any excuse for underperforming and I will be judged like any other player that’s underperformed.
“That’s what burns me the most at this time. There’s no doubt I am disappointed we lost the series two-nil.
“But when you are captain you take things personally and when you don’t perform that makes it even harder.”
David Warner (239 runs at 59.75) was Australia’s leading run-scorer in the series while Steve Smith and youngster Mitchell Marsh in his debut series also averaged over 40.
Dumped No.3 Alex Doolan, his replacement Glenn Maxwell and Warner’s opening partner Chris Rogers are among those players who may have some work to do to convince selectors they are worth a game for the Brisbane Test against India on December 4.
“There’s no doubt the batting has been extremely poor this series and that’s led by myself,” Clarke said.
“My batting is unacceptable as captain.
“That hasn’t helped our bowlers one bit. I think we dropped 11 catches this series.
“That hasn’t helped the bowlers.
“Bat, ball and in the field we’ve been outplayed by a really good Pakistan team.”
Pakistan’s spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah claimed 26 wickets between them.
Clarke denied not being able to pick left-armer Zulfiqar’s variations was the cause of Australia’s problems.
“I don’t think it was necessarily about not picking him,” Clarke said.
“He executed very well over long periods of time on a wicket that had natural variation. Some balls spun, some balls didn’t spin.”
Australia will host South Africa in Perth on November 14 in the opening one-dayer.
“I haven’t even thought about the one-day series,” Clarke said.
