Aussies 'too funky' with selections: Warne

Champion leg-spinner Shane Warne says Australia's "funky" selections cost them a semi-final appearance in their World T20 campaign in India.

Australia bowed out in the Super 10 phase for the second tournament running after a regrettable eight-run loss to trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand and a Virat Kohli-inspired six-wicket defeat to the competition hosts.

Australia used a mixture of players to best suit the conditions and their opponents, and Warne says that instability was a major reason why Steve Smith's men failed to progress.

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But the King of Spin's biggest gripe was the splitting of destructive opening pair David Warner and Aaron Finch.

Sydney Thunder duo Shane Watson and Usman Khawaja were the first-choice top-order combination off the back of the allrounder's impressive KFC Big Bash League season and a stunning century in his last start in the position in Australia, while no other player in the country could boast the same untouchable form across all formats as Khawaja.

Watson and Khawaja provided Australia a much-desired left-hand, right-hand pairing, and it allowed Warner – who has previously batted in the middle-order in the Indian Premier League – to slot in at No.4 and be a floating southpaw in a line-up littered with right-handers.

Having lost the captaincy and his place in the starting XI inside two weeks in late January, Finch sat on the sidelines for the first two games of the World T20 campaign, but got an opportunity to open the innings alongside Khawaja when Watson slid down the order to No.6 in place of Mitchell Marsh, while Warner shifted to No.3.

While the batting order clicked in the 21-run win over Pakistan, against India in their virtual quarter-final, the new-look line-up could only muster 160, which was hunted down by a bloodthirsty Kohli to knock the Australians out of the tournament.

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"First of all, our selection was wrong in my opinion," Warne told cricket.com.au in Mumbai, where he is commentating the World T20 final with Star Sports.

"I don't think we got that right, we messed around with it too much rather than sticking with what's been a proven formula and we probably didn't play well enough, which is the brutal truth.

"I know Khawaja was in unbelievable form and had to play but I would have batted him at No.3.

"I don't think they should have broken up Finch and Warner and I think it upset the balance of the team.

"Those two guys had been batting together for a long time, they have done well in Twenty20, they've done well in one-day cricket, and suddenly they got spilt up.

"And I just would never, ever have left Aaron Finch out.

"Even if he missed out in a few games, I think that Finch-Warner partnership, it's an intimidatory factor before a ball was bowled and people would have worried about Finch and Warner.

"It's not to say they didn't worry about Khawaja, but I just think the other two are more destructive."

Finch and Warner are the second-most capped opening combination for Australia in T20 cricket, with their 12 stands sitting behind Watson and Warner's mark of 32.

But an examination of their numbers suggests they might not be well suited together, and in fact their separation might have been a smart move by the national selection panel.

In those 12 innings together, the pair average 23.58, while Watson and Khawaja average 49.50 in four innings and Finch and Khawaja average 35 and score at 9.69 runs per over in the three times they've walked out to face the new ball together.

While the sample size and sporadic scheduling of T20 internationals must be taken into consideration, what is proven is the Finch-Warner combination in 50-over cricket, where the duo have posted three century-stands, average more than 40 and led Australia's batting unit to a record fifth Cricket World Cup last year.

But the top order was just one issue Warne had with Australia's campaign.

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The 145-Test legend also questioned Josh Hazlewood's inclusion over seam-bowling allrounder John Hastings for the final two matches of the tournament in Mohali.

The green-tinged pitch was expected to suit Hazlewood's extra bounce, but Warne wanted the Victorian in the XI to add a point of difference to an attack he felt was lacking in variety.

"Australia got a bit too funky with their selections," Warne said. "I think John Hastings was picked in the squad as a specialist to bowl at the end but he got dropped for the game he should have played at the end (against India).

"To me, (Josh) Hazlewood is a guy that is a beautiful Test bowler, and it's not that he can't bowl in these forms of the game, but I just think Hastings is a better option in a Twenty20 game because of his yorkers – we saw him in the Big Bash bowl his yorkers , he's just about the best we have.

"We needed another option rather than (left-arm paceman James) Faulkner just bowling his slower balls at one end and (right-armer Nathan) Coulter-Nile with his pace on these sort of wickets – I thought we were one-dimensional by not playing Hastings all the time.

"I just think because we had some much talent in our team and so much skill, they (Australia's selectors) thought 'it doesn't matter what the combinations are we're still going to do OK', but it wasn't to be."

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