Australian spin legends Ian Chappell and Shane Warne might agree on most things, but both have contrasting views over Michael Clarke's captaincy.
Ongoing debate over Clarke's leadership of the Australian Test side took centre stage at the launch of Channel Nine's summer of cricket on Monday at the SCG, with two of the game's biggest names going head-to-head with opposing opinions.
Warne is adamant that Clarke is the best captain in the world and poised for a return to top form this summer. But Chappell only ramped up his criticisms of the skipper's performance in the UAE, reiterating his belief that Clarke doesn't understand how to set a batting order, News.com.au reported.
Warne said that Australia has got the best captain in the world in Clarke, who has scored 3,555 runs, 13 hundreds and averaged 57.33 since taking over from Ricky Ponting in 2011.
Despite Clarke averaging just 14 in the UAE in his return from a hamstring injury, Warne says Clarke's ability to lead from the front shouldn't be doubted and added that he is sure the skipper would find some form straight away. Warne believes that Clarke is in pretty good touch, adding that the skipper has cleared up his mind a little bit and would be pretty good.
Warne warned to watch out for Clarke as he believes the skipper is going to make a few big hundreds soon.
Meanwhile, Chappell has gone after Clarke for suggesting Shane Watson's best position in the Australian side might not be in the top order. With opener David Warner, Clarke and Steve Smith the only established batsmen in the Australian line-up, Chappell said that the skipper can't afford to get his order wrong.
Chappell said that Watson in his return from injury should be a walk-up at number three for the upcoming Test series against India. He added that number three is obviously a problem since Ponting vacated, and the one thing that does bothers him Clarke is his inability to visualize the batting order.
Chappell claimed that he didn't knew whether Clarke doesn't understand how important a batting order is. He added that if one has got the side that one had in the 1990s, early 2000s, it probably doesn't matter what order one bats them in. But, Chappell said that if one has got a side that is struggling with its batting line-up then one better gets them in the right order.
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