Australia’s Nic Maddinson is bowled on day one of the first cricket test match between South Africa and Australia. (AP Photo)
The 34-year-old was dismissed after Travis Head fell for nine, leaving Australia in early trouble after captain Pat Cummins won the toss and elected to bat on the opening day.
Maddinson’s 0 off 33 balls is the third-longest duck by an opener in Test history. His previous Test appearance came during the 2016-17 home summer, when he managed just 27 runs across three matches. “And if we continue to lay that out and expect that a bloke averaging 35 is going to average 55 in Test match cricket, George Bailey and Tony Dodemaide, you are dreaming. Maddinson’s first-class average of 37.11 had further fuelled the debate around his selection.
Because they don’t want to play,” Hayden said, you should be picking guys that are averaging 45 or more, and you can’t,. It is also the longest innings for a duck by a Test opener in the 21st century, making it an unwanted milestone on his comeback to the national side. Maddinson was drafted into the squad as a replacement for the injured Cameron Green, making a return to the Test set-up after overcoming testicular cancer. I will just put it that simply. You are frigging dreaming. And you are piling up this dog s*** explanation, and you are, in my opinion, disrespecting first-class cricket. Absolutely dead set you are. Cummins, however, had backed the batter ahead of the series, saying he was settled in his game.
Speaking on the All Over Bar The Cricket podcast, Hayden launched a scathing attack on the selection panel and questioned the standard of players being picked for the national team.
“Where we are at is that we are promoting the greatest pile of mediocrity that we’ve seen in a generation of cricket,” Hayden said.