Australia has sunk to an embarrassing new cricket low in their 2-1 series defeat to Pakistan with the form of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis a particular concern for fans and selectors. Without Steve Smith, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Marnus Labushagne for the series decider, Australia were once again woeful with the bat having only managed to score 140 runs off 31.5 overs.

And Pakistan cruised to the total having reached it with 139 balls to spare. The loss marks the first time Pakistan has defeated Australia at home in 22 years. But the stats read much worse for Australia. In the 2-1 loss, it also marked the first time ever in Australian cricket a player has never reached a half-century in a three-match One Day International series.

The batting was the main concern for Australia having only scored 163 in the second One Day International and scraped to 200 in the first clash. And while Jake Fraser-McGurk and Josh Inglis were questioned for their form across the three games, the two that have come under the most pressure are Maxwell and Stoinis.

Maxwell has struggled for form in recent years wearing the green and gold and bar a few big innings, the allrounder has struggled. Since scoring a double hundred against Afghanistan in the World Cup, his last seven matches for Australia have been dire.

In his last seven innings Maxwell has only scored 56 runs with scores of 1, 2 not out, 7, 30, 0, 16 and 0. When asked about what went wrong for Australia, Aussie cricket great Ian Healy claimed the team misread the opposition and it put the middle order of Australia under pressure.

“I think it is just a misreading of a lot things. A misreading of the opposition. We undersold Pakistan,” Healy said on SEN Radio. “We never came close to using the 300 balls.

“The wickets were spicy, it brings the bowlers back into the contest…we just didn’t stack up. We misread the conditions, we misread the opposition. Don’t put Glenn Maxwell under pressure to stay in and make runs batting at 7. He was under pressure.”

He wasn’t the only one under pressure, Stoinis came back into the Australian side having not played a single List A game in more than a year. And the allrounder also immediately struggled having been dismissed for eight runs to complete Australia’s slump from 2-56 to 6-88.

Aussie fans were critical of the batters and selectors after the historic defeat, which was the first time an Aussie hasn’t scored a half-century for Australia in a series since 1971. Fans are wondering why Maxwell and Stoinis continue to be selected and whether it is a concern there is no talent knocking down the door to take make the team.

Josh Inglis laments horror series for Australia

Inglis was standing in as captain with Cummins resting ahead of Australia’s upcoming series against India. And the dynamic batter was left disappointed with the result at home. “Very disappointing,” Inglis added after the series loss. “We clearly didn’t get enough runs on the board, and our whole batting line-up really just didn’t get going at all throughout the series.

“Everyone’s got to probably look at ourselves individually and find ways to get better and keep improving.” The batting performance in Perth in front of 19,781 fans will draw criticism for some time to come with Australia looking to improve in the upcoming T20 series.

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Ian Healy blasts ‘development’ side

On Monday morning, Healy was asked if the Australian side was one of the worst teams on paper we have thrown out in an international. And while Healy stopped short of the comment, Healy was critical and claimed it was an eye-opener for selectors and coaches.

“We had a development side out yesterday, but we think out development side is better than that. But we found out the hard way,” he said. “The ability in One Day cricket has left us. we don’t play much One Day cricket in Australia. We haven’t played here enough.”