"Young" Oz side needs to get "tougher" in adverse situations: Taylor

Perth, Dec 21(ANI): Former Australian captain Mark Taylor has said that despite a 2-0 win in the home series against West Indies, the Ricky Ponting led team was in some ways short of being a top-notch side.

Taylor said that instead of losing momentum when the team lost wickets at regular intervals, they had to get better in adverse situations.

"One thing I know they're going to have to keep working on is that when they are having that bad session, they've got to make sure it doesn't keep going on and on - lose two wickets rather than three or four or five. That's the problem they seem to be having at the moment," The Age quoted Taylor, as saying.

"It goes back to the Ashes, where everyone says, and rightly so, that they won more sessions than England did, but when they're having a bad session, they're having a real bad one," he added.

Taylor further said that the current lot of batsman lack requisite hardness, which can be demonstrated either by toughing out a difficult session or by hitting oneself out of a hole like Adam Gilchrist did.

"It's a sign of this side, it's a younger side, there's not the Waughs in the middle, not the Matthew Hayden at the top, those players who seem to be able to either really knuckle down and get through a tough period, or hit you out of it," Taylor said.

"I can remember Adam Gilchrist coming in at 5-90 a few times and going bang, bang, bang and hitting hundreds and changing the game. Players like Brad Haddin can certainly do it, and I thought (in Perth) he was going to be the one or Michael Clarke was going to be," he added.

He said that Haddin and Clarke are the sort of players who are required to get Australia out of those tough sessions and turn a bad session to a good one. (ANI)