'I thought we might have been a tad negative at certain stages'- Michael Clarke throws light on Australia's embarrassing loss

Team Australia invited criticism from all across the globe after their horrendous outing against India in the four-match Border Gavaskar Trophy. This was the second time, on a trot, that Australia failed to conquer the prestigious Trophy despite playing in their own backyard.

However, this time the defeat was worse for the hosts as they were playing with their full strength after the inclusion of Steve Smith and David Warner while India were without the services of their many key players including skipper Virat Kohli.

Former Australian captain Michael Clarke, who led Men in Yellow to their 5th Cricket World Cup triumph in ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 at the MCG against New Zealand, opened up on the historic defeat of Australia saying that the hosts were playing with a ‘negative’ approach and were scared of defeat instead of focusing on winning the matches.

“I thought we might have been a tad negative at certain stages throughout because we were scared to lose versus attack hard and look to win the game. At the end of the day, whether we lost with 20 overs left in the game or on the last ball of the game, it didn’t matter.

“We had to win that game to win that Trophy. I sort of feel we should have approached the first ball of that game to the last ball of that game with a bit more of that attitude,” Michael Clarke said on Big Sports Breakfast.

Michael Clarke backs Tim Paine as Australia’s captain

Under Paine, Australia have competed in 23 Tests and have managed to win only 11 of them. Meanwhile, losing two back-to-back home Test series against India in 2018-19 and 2020-21 have been the most unpleasant part of Paine’s stint as the Australian captain. However, Clarke doesn’t hold Tim Paine responsible for the loss as he believes that the captain should not be blamed every time since there are other professionals, who call the shots in the Australian set up.

“When I played cricket, when I grew up watching my father … the captain was accountable in the teams I played in. Through that transition of me captaining Australia, that changed. There had become a chairman of selectors that had more pull, there had become a high performance manager that had more pull, there had become a head coach who had more pull. So now, who is driving the bus? This is my point.” Michael Clarke concluded.