New T20 skipper slams ‘disrespectful’ call

Temporary Australian T20 captain Josh Inglis says it’s unfair to label his side for Thursday night’s T20 clash with Pakistan at the Gabba as a “B” line-up as he urged the hosts to “forget about” their poor performances in the one-day international series between the teams.

Cricket Australia has been criticised for focusing too much on Australia’s upcoming Test series against India by resting several players from ODI and T20 series against Pakistan.

Pakistan’s 2-1 win in the three-match ODI series led to further criticism of CA, with the pressure now on stand-in white-ball captain Inglis and the rest of his team to bounce back in the three-game T20 series.

When asked if the players involved in the T20 series found it “disrespectful” to be branded a “B” squad, Inglis questioned the fairness of the label.

“I don’t think it’s very fair to say that, but we know how challenging the schedule is,” the wicket-keeper-batsman said.

“There’s always series overlapping where players are used (in different) formats.

“There are decisions to be made. That’s above my pay grade, thankfully.”

Inglis said the Australians were keen for redemption at the Gabba after disappointing performances with the bat, and the ball, in the one-day series.

“There were big losses, and typically not something that we’re very used to,” he said.

“You’ve got to be honest, that batting group didn’t score enough runs and that’s on us to rectify that this week.

“Everyone’s got their methods and how they go about it. It’s just about bringing them up this week, and let’s forget about what’s happened before.

“Just attack it head on and keep backing yourself … (but) we’ve seen how good a side this (Pakistan) team is and we don’t take any team we come against lightly.”

Inglis said his style of captaincy would also be helped if Australia could post competitive totals during the T20 series.

“I quite like to be positive in considering the moves I make in the field and the bowling changes,” he said.

“I probably haven’t been able to implement that as much. Only having 140 on the board the other day (in the third one-dayer against Pakistan) was quite tough.

“We’ll see how it pans out this week but hopefully it’ll be about making positive decisions.”

Inglis said he was looking forward to playing at the Gabba.

“I love playing cricket here. It’s a beautiful stadium, and it’s always such a good cricket wicket,” he said.

“There’s value for your runs but if you bowl well you can take wickets too.”