Darren Lehmann opens up about regrettable 2015 Ashes series

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Darren Lehmann
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Australian cricket coach Darren Lehmann speaks to journalists. (Photo by WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

Darren Lehmann has opened up about the disastrous 2015 Ashes tour in England which saw Michael Clarke’s Australian side go down 3-2 and surrender the Ashes grail on enemy soil. Lehmann, who has been one of the most impressive coaches for the Aussies in recent times has said that picking the likes of Shane Watson and Brad Haddin was a mistake on the outset.

Darren Lehmann, who is now looking at redemption in the Ashes series in 2017 in Australia said that he was very clear about the deliverables he expected from the pair of individuals.

“Are you going to get some runs or are you going to retire?,” Lehmann said revealing his words to the pair. “They both said they would get some runs, but I knew in my heart of hearts they had run their race at Test level,” Lehmann explains in his book.

“I admit I did allow myself to be blinded a little through sentiment and a belief they could turn around their declining form. Given my time again my preference as just one member of the NSP (national selection panel) would have been to look beyond Watson and Haddin for that Ashes series, but circumstances dictated otherwise.”

Also read – One of the best performances by the bowlers: MS Dhoni

He however, maintained diplomatic relations by stating thathe still loved them. “Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” Lehmann told Fairfax Media “I love ‘em. I still love them. But if you were looking at raw, hard performances leading into that we probably shouldn’t have taken them. But we did and that’s a mistake that I made.”

“In the case of Brad Haddin what it boiled down to was, first and foremost, a selection issue, as we should never have taken him to the West Indies and the United Kingdom in the first place, something I think he, too, now acknowledges,” he added. “I thought he could continue to perform to the required level in the Caribbean and during the Ashes series but, with my experience, I should have known better.”

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