cricket

Updated: Feb 20, 2019 11:20 IST

Australia’s vice-captain Josh Hazelwood has said that the absence of Steve Smith and David Warner created lack of experience in the batting department, with youngsters having no one to look up to in the series against Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka.

The 28-year-old pacer said that none of Shaun Marsh or Usman Khawaja can be universally regarded as senior batsmen while adding that the advice from coaches cannot teach you everything.

“It’s just so important to have those couple of senior guys when you bring those couple of young guys into the top six to learn from. You just can’t teach some things as coaches, you have to learn out in the middle batting with a senior person, so I think the other young batters will really feed off having them back,” Hazelwood told ESPNcricinfo.

“The likes of Marcus Harris, Travis Head and Marcus Labuschagne, all new batsmen in the Test side, suffered for the lack of guidance at the other end from players who had found ways to be consistently high scorers at Test level,” he added.

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Hazelwood also appreciated Smith’s consistency and said that bowlers can relax knowing that Steve is batting at the crease.

“Every time Steve goes out to bat, he pretty much gets a hundred these days, so the time with the feet up is pretty important [for the fast bowlers],” he said.

Steve Smith and David Warner were banned for one year for their involvement in the massive ball-tampering scandal during a Test series against South Africa, last year.

The suspension period of the both the batsmen will expire on March 28 following which they are expected to return to the Australian team ahead of the Ashes and World Cup.