Jason Gillespie reveals Cricket Australia's priority between Pakistan and India series

Former Australian pacer and present Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie opened up his views on Australia’s performances in the recently concluded home ODI series against Pakistan. 

Although hosts Australia won the three-match ODI series opener against Pakistan, Pakistan won the last two ODIs to win the ODI bilateral series for the second time in Australia. 

In the series finale at Perth, which was a series decider, the key members of the upcoming home Test series against India were rested. Australia made five changes in the playing XI, while Josh Inglis made his captaincy debut in international cricket. 

Apart from the skipper Pat Cummins, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood were rested from the series decider.  

In the third ODI, Pakistan chose to field first and bundled out the hosts for only 140 runs. The visitors comfortably chased down the target with eight wickets in hand.

It was pretty clear to us where CA’s priorities lie: Jason Gillespie

Pakistan head coach Jason Gillespie felt that Cricket Australia (CA) didn’t take on priority the home ODI series against Pakistan due to the upcoming Border-Gavaskar Trophy, where Australia will host India for a five-match Test series. The 49-year-old former Aussie fast bowler didn’t see any promotion for the recently concluded ODI series. 

Gillespie told the Sydney Morning Herald, "To be honest, I pretty much saw no promotion of our one-day series by Cricket Australia, which was a bit of a surprise. It’s pretty obvious that they’re prioritizing the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series against India because I saw no promotion of this series. Fox do a great job promoting but it was pretty clear to us where CA’s priorities lie. That’s their prerogative and their decision, but I just didn’t see any advertising or promotion of this one-day series at all.”

Our bowling exposed some flaws in the Australian batting: Pakistan head coach

Gillespie is happy with Pakistani pacers’ dominance in the recently concluded ODI series against the hosts Australia. He also feels that the Aussies will learn from the mistakes against Pakistan. 

Pakistan's head coach said, "What we saw in this series is our bowling exposed some flaws in the Australian batting. I’m sure the Australians will look to right some wrongs and improve some things. That’s what good players and good teams do; you learn and adjust and adapt and be ready for the next challenge. It was pleasing not just to beat Australia but to beat them pretty convincingly.”

Some experts and former cricketers, including the former ODI World Cup-winning captain Michael Clarke, were unhappy with the team management’s decision to rest the senior players for the series decider.