Allan Border blasts Matt Renshaw for retiring midway

Former captain Allan Border has slammed Matt Renshaw for retiring midway through his innings due to a “stomach bug” and feels the young Australian opener had to be “half dead” to be back in the dressing room on day one of the first Test against India in Pune on Thursday.

Renshaw chatted with umpires right after the opening stand of 82 runs ended with the fall of David Warner. He then had a conversation with incoming batsman Steve Smith and following the hand signals towards the dressing room, the southpaw was confirmed to be “retired hurt”.

However, Renshaw’s approach did not go down well with Border. The opener came back into the middle and ended with a fighting 68 in his first ever Test match in Asia.

“I hope he’s lying on the table in there half dead,” Border told Fox Sports. “Otherwise, as captain, I would not be happy. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. He’s obviously just got an upset stomach to some degree and he was probably trying to use the situation where David Warner had just been dismissed to race off the ground and go to the toilet.

“What happened in the ensuring time there, I can’t ever think of a situation like that that’s happened before where someone’s gone off because they’re a bit ill,” Border was not at all sympathetic.

“If David Warner hadn’t got out then he wouldn’t have even thought about it. It’s a bit of an odd situation. He probably thought he had time to race off the ground and get back on while the new batsman was coming out to the crease.

“I can tell you what, if Shaun Marsh was dismissed in those last 15 minutes I would’ve been ropeable as captain,” Border added.