Michael Clarke puts the selector's cap on

Former Australian Captain Michael Clarke urged the Australian team to buckle up and deliver up to their potential in the last two ODIs of the series. With India already having gained an unassailable lead of 3-0, they’ve nothing to lose. He shared a video on Twitter wherein he spoke about the playing XI Australia should go forward with for the last two games.

Clarke’s XI for the next two games

The World Cup Winning captain remarked that Australia struggled throughout the series and has been completely outplayed by India. He opined that Australia must play aggressively in the remainder of the series.

Starting from the openers, Clarke named Aaron Finch and David Warner as his obvious choices. While he stated there was no doubt over Finch’s spot after an outstanding innings in the last game, he wished to see more of the aggressiveness from Warner in the field too that would probably set the tone for Australia. Contrary to popular opinion for No.3, he had aspirations to watch Glenn Maxwell occupy that spot. He backed the ‘Big Show’ to go big in the last 2 games.

Clarke expected skipper and Australia’s batting mainstay Steve Smith to occupy the No. 4 spot to make up for the middle order lapses. Also with Smith being a good player of spin, he may rotate the strike well and allow others to bat around him. The World Cup-winning captain opined that the No. 5 spot belonged to Travis Head with all-rounder Marcus Stoinis at No.6 who has shown improving signs in every game. He preferred a specialist wicketkeeper i.e. Mathew Wade at No.7.

Clarke wants Faulker, Zampa back in side

Clarke hoped to see bowling all-rounder James Faulkner back into the mix, with Pat Cummins and Nathan Coulter Nile to continue spearheading the pace attack. He was surprised at the decision of dropping Adam Zampa in the 3^rd ODI and named him as the 11th player for the last two games.

The fourth game is scheduled to be played on Thursday at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.