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| January 30, 2007 | Tuesday | Muharram 10, 1428 |
Tait recalled for last two ties
PERTH, Jan 29: Shaun Tait has been called into the Australia squad for the final two tri-series one-day matches against England and New Zealand to beef up the team's fast bowling stocks.
With the Australians already guaranteed of a place in the finals, the national selectors called up paceman Tait to give him the chance of pressing his claims for selection in the World Cup squad.
“We are taking the opportunity to add Shaun Tait with a view to looking at him ahead of Cricket World Cup squad selection,” Australia's chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said in a statement.
“These next two games form the final opportunity to look at him ahead of World Cup squad selection.
“Ben Hilfenhaus performed well earlier in the series and at that point Shaun was injured. Shaun has made an impressive return from injury and we want to take a further look at him in the international environment.”
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said he was unhappy with the performance of his fast bowlers in Sunday's eight run win over New Zealand in Perth but Tait's inclusion was not a sign of panic.
The world champions looked to have the game in the bag after amassing 343 for five but stumbled over the line by just eight runs after the Kiwis belted 335-5 in reply.
“I am disappointed in the way we responded and reacted and hopefully we will improve on that when the finals come around,”
Ponting told a news conference.
“You are not going to lose too many of those games, but it would have been nice to close it out earlier than we did as well.”
Despite his disappointment, Ponting said the tight match would ultimately benefit the Australians, who won their previous game against England by nine wickets with more than 25 overs to spare and remain unbeaten in the competition.
“I think that will hold us in good stead now,” said Ponting.
“You need those sort of games, you need to be tested, need to be put under pressure.
“Our bowlers were put under some pretty intense pressure and we didn't cope as well as I would have liked... so we know we have got some work to do there.”
Australia's next match is against England in Sydney on Friday.—Reuters
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