Matthew Hayden (Getty Images)
Maddinson, 34, was added to Australia’s squad amid a mounting injury crisis ahead of the series opener in Durban on October 9. “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.
“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 on the All Over Bar The Cricket podcast. Josh Inglis has been ruled out with a finger injury, while Cameron Green remains a doubt for the first Test.
Maddinson has not featured in a Test since the 2016-17 home summer, when he scored just 27 runs across three matches. His first-class average of 37.11 has further fuelled the debate around his selection. Because they don’t want to play,” said Hayden, you should be picking guys that are averaging 45 or more, and you can’t,.
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. His return to the squad comes after a difficult period that included treatment for testicular cancer. Hayden suggested Sam Harper could have been considered instead. The wicketkeeper-batter recently impressed on Australia A’s tour of India, where he also scored a century, before being added to the Test squad. Hayden argued that Marsh’s lack of Shield cricket should matter despite Australia captain Pat Cummins backing the all-rounder.