Australia coach Darren Lehmann admits “hardest” Brad Haddin decision

Clarke said 66-Test veteran Haddin would have played at Lord’s if available and leg-spin great Warne, insisted, while commentating on television at Edgbaston, that he should have been selected for the third Test.

The 37-year-old Haddin asked to be stood down for the second test at Lord’s because his daughter was sick and was not recalled for the match at Edgbaston for which understudy Peter Nevill retained his place.

Bill Lawry is Australia’s only Test captain to be sacked mid-series.

“We’ve talked about it openly”.

Australia selection chief Rodney Marsh said he had no option but to leave wicket-keeper Brad Haddin out of the third Ashes Test against England at Edgbaston.

“The cold hard facts are he’s played the last 12 Test matches and made 250 runs at 15, with 16 bowleds (sic) out of 21”, Lehmann said. “It comes down to the performance”.

Lehmann also cited the glaring statistic that seemed to be at the forefront of the selectors thinking – that Haddin had been dismissed bowled in eight of his past 21 Test innings over that 12-match stretch which indicated shortcomings in the defensive component of his naturally attacking game.

Nevill repaid their faith with a half century in the second innings but the nature of Haddin’s axing has left many Australian players wondering how much support they will receive in future if they also suffer a personal problem that rules them out of Test cricket.

Former Australia captain Ponting, who played 168 Tests, was unimpressed after current skipper Michael Clarke confirmed Haddin’s omission on Tuesday.

“He’s a fantastic player with a fantastic attitude”, Marsh said, as quoted by Cricket Australia’s official website.

“He’d be disappointed like the other players are”.

“It is in a series like that that his experience and value to the team came through”. I know there’s been a big hoo-hah about “family first”, well we still have that.

“We had (fast bowler) Ryan Harris missing a tour to the West Indies with no guarantee he was going to play the first Test here (in Britain) – we didn’t know he was going to retire obviously”.

“David Warner missed [a tour of] Zimbabwe for the birth of his child…” “Statistically it shows that I have performed a lot better at No. 5 than No.4, but it’s not like I have walked in at 2-10 throughout this series. It’s a disappointing game for us and we’ve just got to cop the criticism we cop (and) work out what the best XI is to win the next Test match, which is pretty important”.

“We all love Hadds, the players love Hadds, so everyone’s going to have different emotions but that’s part of professional sport and we try and deal with it as best we possibly can”.

“He made the only and right decision to be with his daughter Mia who was very ill in hospital and missed that match”.

But Lehmann quashed suggestions the former vice-captain, who announced his retirement from limited-overs cricket in the wake of Australia’s World Cup triumph earlier this year, was resentful of the treatment afforded him. Lehmann said.

“We’ll sit down, Rodney and I, and speak with the captain on his wishes”.