Fast bowler James Pattinson says the decision to drop him and three others from the Australian Test side was the right choice.
When Australia decided to axe four of their key players from the side who failed to perform a presentation to the coaching staff on Monday, there was quite a media storm.
As well as Pattinson, vice-captain Shane Watson, Mitchell Johnson and Usman Khawaja were suspended from playing in the third Test at Mohali on Thursday.
However, despite captain Michael Clarke and head coach Mickey Arthur coming under a lot of pressure from some prominent figures in cricket, Pattinson has spoken out stating his superiors made the correct decsion.
“It sends a message to everyone here that we’re playing Test cricket and to be a Test cricketer you have to get 100 per cent of things right,” the bowler said to Cricket Australia.
“If I wasn’t in this position, if it was someone else, as a team member I’d be disappointed in them that they’d let the team down.”
Pattinson is the second member of the axed quartet to speak out after Shane Watson declared yesterday that he was considering his future in cricket after the decision.
The vice-captain has clearly not taken the suspension as well as Pattinson has and a rift between Watson and his captain, Michael Clarke, appears to be emerging.
Watson has already announced that he will not be available for the fourth and final Test of the series in Delhi, so that he can be at home with his heavily pregnant wife. The other three suspended players will be eligible to play though after serving their time in the pavilion.
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