SYDNEY — Former captain Steve Waugh has urged Australia coach Darren Lehmann to stick with his underperforming top six batsmen, saying no one performs at their best with the ax hanging over them. Lehmann Tuesday warned his batsmen that their Test careers were in jeopardy after a dramatic second innings collapse in the fourth Test saw England to a third straight Ashes series win. "No-one's guaranteed (their place). Apart from probably Michael Clarke and Chris Rogers," he said, referring to the captain and the opener. But Waugh, who played 168 Tests, said selectors need to stick with the nation's top six Test batsmen if they are to have any chance of putting Australian cricket back on a winning path. He said uncertainty over selection meant fringe batsmen were unable to relax into their natural stroke play. "Look at Phil Hughes, he's been up and down the order and has been dropped three or four times in 20 Tests. That doesn't give you much confidence," Waugh told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation late Tuesday. "Usman Khawaja is another example. "If you've got the ax hanging over your head always it is really hard to relax and play your natural game. "Selectors have got to say: 'We're going to go through some tough times, but these are the six or seven batsmen we believe in and we're going to back them even if they don't succeed straight away'." Waugh said he experienced first-hand the benefits of selectors showing faith, as he did not win a Test match until his 13th Test and failed to score a ton until his 26th Test. After that, he flourished into one of Australia's most successful batsmen and captains, accumulating 10,927 Test runs with an average of 51.06 and leading Australia in 15 of their record breaking 16 consecutive Test victories. "It took a long while for me to get it right as well," Waugh said. "But I had the benefit of getting it wrong. Right now, the selectors need to pick and stick and show confidence in players." Waugh added that he believed Australia's problems stemmed from too much Twenty20 and one-day cricket, which he said did not adequately prepare batsmen for the discipline of a Test match. Warne slams Cook's tactics Australia great Shane Warne maintained Wednesday that England had won the Ashes in spite, rather than because, of Alastair Cook's overly defensive captaincy. England, which had already retained the Ashes, won the fourth Test at Chester-le-Street by 74 runs Monday with more than a day to spare to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead in their five-match series against arch-rivals Australia. Leg-spin legend Warne, the first bowler to take 700 Test wickets and regarded as a shrewd tactical thinker during his playing days, said Cook had been far too defensive early in Australia's second innings. "Cook was way too cautious at the start of Australia's run chase," Warne wrote in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper. "He had a deep point, would move slips out as soon as there was a good shot through the covers and the bowlers were bowling too short and not full and at the stumps." Warne added Cook, who has lost only one Test in his 12 matches as England captain, was too reliant on England head coach Andy Flower and the team's Australian bowling coach, David Saker. "Saker and Flower knew England were losing the Test largely because of the captain's approach but the tea interval came at the right time for England." While commentating on television, Warne criticized Cook's decision to bring on Tim Bresnan in the final session, only for the Yorkshire seamer to claim the key wicket of well-set Australia opener David Warner, who made 71. Flower said Tuesday that Cook deserved credit for that move. Meanwhile, Warne's former Australia teammate Glenn McGrath said there was a hint of the old "Baggy Green mentality" in the current England team. "The Australian team that I was lucky enough to play in had a certain aura and sometimes you had teams beaten before you walked on the field," McGrath, Test cricket's most successful fast bowler with 563 wickets, wrote in British daily The Guardian. "England aren't at that stage but after 12 Tests without defeat and five wins in six they've got that confidence, that belief. "We saw something of that old Baggy Green mentality from England Monday evening. When you're playing in a good team where you're confident in yourself and your teammates, when you've done the business before, it makes it so much easier," added McGrath, who like Warne retired from Test cricket following Australia's 5-0 whitewash of England in 2007. The fifth and final Test of the series starts at The Oval in south London on Wednesday, August 21. — Agencies
