Former Aussie great Geoff Lawson didn’t mince his words while questioning Daniel Vettori’s role in the team as Australia got humiliated in the first two Tests against India, going down in both matches inside three days by huge margins. Vettori, regarded as one of the best left-arm spinners ever, is travelling with the team as the assistant coach. Geoff, while speaking with SEN Radio recently, came down hard on the New Zealander saying if the Australian batters are failing so much again the spin and their spinners are struggling to pick Indian wickets on regular intervals, then what is Vettori there for.

Off the 40 Australian wickets that have fallen across four innings, 32 out of those have gone to spinners. In the first and even in the second Test, returning star all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja produced match-winning spells including his career-best of seven for 42 in the second innings of Delhi Test.

Already upset with Australia’s woeful performance on this tour, Lawson pinpointed towards Vettori, whom he doesn’t think have done enough to bail Australia out of trouble.

"The man who's probably not copping as much as he should is Daniel Vettori, who is one of the great left-arm orthodox bowlers in the world, but he should be advising on how we're going to bowl and how we're going to play against that sort of bowling," Lawson said on SEN Radio lately.

Urging the former Kiwi captain to provide vital inputs on how to tackle the spin web laid by the Indian trio of Ashwin, Jadeja and Axar, Dawson said, "He seems to have escaped a bit of attention here because when I see shots of the dressing room I think, 'What's Vettori's input here, he's the man who was a great slow ball'. He should perhaps be having more input than most."

Meanwhile, having already lost the Border-Gavaskar series 0-2, Australia still has the spot in the final of the World Test Championship to play for. For them to be the sure-starter for June 7th event at the Oval in London, they have to avoid suffering a series whitewash in addition to hoping the New Zealand doesn’t face slump against Sri Lanka in their home two-match Test series.

The third Test will begin on March 1st at the Holkar stadium in Indore.

(With inputs from agencies)