Dom Sibley is not a Test player, frankly I don’t know how he got to that level: Mark Waugh

Former Australia cricketer Mark Waugh has said that England Opener Dom Sibley “is not a Test batsman” as he does not play shots which can hurt the bowlers. Waugh added that he wonders how the 25-year-old reach to the top-most level of cricket.

The statement from Waugh, who played 128 Test matches, comes almost 5 months ahead of the start of Ashes 2021-22 in Australia. Further, the 56-year-old added that England’s middle-order was suffering because of openers Sibley and Rory Burns.

“There’s just no quality there,” said Waugh, speaking on the Road to the Ashes podcast. “I don’t know why there’s no depth in batting in the English line-up. To me, James Vince is not a bad player. I know he’s played 13 Tests, but he’s got a touch of class. Someone like Dom Sibley, he can’t score. You can’t come to Australia with Burns and Sibley opening the batting, because they can’t score. He hasn’t got any shots, Dom Sibley. He’s not a Test player, and quite frankly I don’t know how he got to that level. There’s got to be a shortage of players there.”

“Dom Sibley, I just don’t know how he can play Test cricket,” he said. “As a bowler, you worry about batsmen that can hurt you. No one’s thought of this. The England middle-order are suffering, because all the bowlers who play against England have got their tail up and confidence up because they are not getting hurt by Burns and Sibley.

“They can’t punish them, they can’t hurt them on any level. All they can do is survive and see off the shine. That’s no good. You have to put pressure on the bowler, and these two can’t do that,” he further added.

Dom Sibley has played 20 Test matches till now and scored 985 runs at an average of 30.78. He has two hundreds to his name but the last one came versus West Indies in Manchester in July 2020. In his last 9 innings, Sibley has registered 7 single-digit scores.

Rory Burns has played 25 Test matches to score 1,529 runs at an average of 33.23.