‘Don’t care about losing’: Harsh reality called out

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke lashed the disrespect shown by Cricket Australia and national selectors for the ODI series following Sunday’s loss to Pakistan as a T20 replacement for injured young gun Cooper Connolly was confirmed.

Josh Philippe, who captained the second Australia A game and was flown to Perth as a back-up for the ODI squad, will now traverse the country and prepare for the first T20 in Brisbane on Thursday after confirmation Connolly suffered a broken hand.

Philippe has crisscrossed the country having also played for Australia A against India A in Mackay as the overlapping summer schedules continue to rankle with fans and now former players.

Amid revelations Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins was at a Coldplay concert in Sydney as the B-grade Australian outfit succumbed to Pakistan for the second match in a row, losing a home series to the tourists for the first time in 22 years, Clarke went on the attack.

He questioned why Test players including Cummins, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc and Marnus Labuschagne were left out of a series-deciding match to rest up for the Test series against India that begins in Perth on November 22.

Their test teammate Alex Carey will on Tuesday play in a domestic one-day game for South Australia and Clarke said it appeared Cricket Australia “don’t care about losing”.

“I’m just a bit confused, so 11 days between now and the first Test, why can’t the Aussie boys who are part of this Test series play in the one-dayer,” he said on his Big Sports Breakfast radio show.

“They are going to go to training and get flogged.

“If Australia had won the first two games, then you can understand why they rest their big fish, but it was series on the line.

“You can’t expect the fans to want and come and watch one-day cricket. We are bagging one-day cricket, no one is turning up, hasn’t got the interest, I wonder why. I feel like we obviously don’t care about losing that series. If you’re not going to care, we’re not going to care.

“I think we have it wrong. I understand resting for Test cricket, I love that, but it’s a one-day game. They are going to bowl more than that at training.”

An Instagram post revealed Cummins was at the concert with his wife Becky, rested after playing the opening two matches of the series.

But selectors made five changes for the third match, which Australia lost by eight wickets after being bowled out for just 140.

Josh Inglis, who replaced Cummins as captain but will now be part of the T20 squad despite also being named in the 13-man Test squad, said improvement was desperately needed.

“They’ve got four very good quick bowlers, and I thought they put pressure on our batters throughout and made it really tough,” Inglis said. “I guess everyone’s got to look individually and find ways to get better and keep improving.”