Missing Boof had no bearing, says Bailey

George Bailey says it would be a "knee-jerk and shallow" reaction to blame Australia's woeful collapse on the absence of coach Darren Lehmann.

Australia started their tour of New Zealand with a 159-run ODI loss in Auckland, where they failed to recover from a collapse of five wickets for eight runs.

Lehmann was recently diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis and missed the clash, having also been sidelined from the side's three recent Twenty20 losses to India.

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"I don't think he would have scored any runs on that wicket either. It wouldn't have suited him," Bailey told radio station SEN.

"Boof's been around the group for long enough and we've all played enough with him, including the coaching staff.

"The language is all the same. The meetings are all run the same. We've prepared the same.

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Matt Henry celebrates the wicket of George Bailey at Eden Park //Getty

"I think it would be a bit of a knee-jerk or shallow reaction to say it was all down to Boof being here or not being here.

"Absolutely we'd love to have him here as head coach, but I don't think we can pass the buck on that one."

Bailey pointed out Lehmann was with the ODI squad in 2015, when they suffered a collapse of 8-26 against the same opposition at the same ground.

"He was the coach here when we played in the World Cup 12 months ago and it was much the same result," Bailey said.

"We just haven't played particularly well at this ground the last couple of times we've played here."

Steve Smith also called on his teammates to take responsibility after being embarrassed at Eden Park.

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"We'd love to have our coach here. There's no doubt about that," Smith said.

"He's unwell at the moment obviously, and he'll be back soon enough.

"We've got to move on. I don't think today it was him to blame. It was certainly the players."