Australian cricket’s veterans silence the doubters
Roar Rookie By Lachlan Stevens, 30 Dec 2011 Lachlan Stevens is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- Australian Cricket, Cricket, Michael Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Test cricket
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In the lead up to the Boxing Day Test many Australian cricket supporters were calling for the axing of Michael Hussey and Ricky Ponting among others from the team. I’ll admit, I was one of those people.
I was all for bringing in new blood, and all for the removing these two men from the side, who despite being giants of the past, were well past their prime.
But, what have we seen in the test? We’ve seen both players bounce back into a little form.
Mike Hussey’s dismissal in the first innings wouldn’t have happened had the DRS been in use in the series. He had a few reprieves in the second innings, but played well throughout it regardless.
His lucky 89 in the second innings lifts his average this summer to 22.40, still a poor effort, but definitely an improvement on what it was sitting at after the series against New Zealand, which was under 20.
If the Australian selectors stick with him over the rest of the summer he may have the opportunity to continue on the comeback trail.
Before the beginning of the test, I felt that Ricky Ponting was, without doubt, lacking the mental capability to go in with the game much longer. While his two innings started off with a little uncertainty, I did start to see a bit of the old Ponting starting to shine through.
Two 60+ scores is more than the former captain has had to show in previous matches of late, and his average for the summer now sits at an acceptable average of 44.20.
He’s looking like he might just survive this summer, despite popular opinion a week or so ago that it might be his last here in Australian.
Maybe the two of them have had a few too many chances, but now that the two of them look to be heading back towards a good place score-wise, there’s no reason why the selectors shouldn’t stick with the pair for a little while longer.
With these developments, the New Year’s Test will be that much more an exciting event in this summer’s cricket.
Certainly Brad Haddin has, despite being in good form with the gloves, continued to disappoint with the bat, and maybe selectors should begin to look towards bringing Tim Paine or Peter Neville into the team.
But some of the popular opinion and criticism based around the Australian set up has, for the moment at least, been rebuffed.
The Ashes journey begins
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Australian captain Michael Clarke and his teammates were optimistic about their chances before jetting off.
Click here to hear the thoughts of our Australian cricket team as they left for England.
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The Crowd Says (9) | Page 1 of Comments
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- Explore:
- Australian Cricket, Cricket, Michael Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Test cricket
December 30th 2011 @ 7:30am
Red Kev said | December 30th 2011 @ 7:30am | Report comment
The sort of thinking in this article is exactly what is wrong with the selection panel and Austalian cricket.
Ponting and Hussey have not silenced any intelligent evidence or planning based criticism, only the soundbite and fairweather nonsense delivered by the majority of the media and the uninformed public.
December 30th 2011 @ 8:50am
Lachlan Stevens said | December 30th 2011 @ 8:50am | Report comment
They may not have silenced any intelligent evidence, as you say but surely we can agree that if they continue to perform well in the next few tests (because I can’t see the selection panel dropping them after the Boxing Day test) they might be heading along the right path to do it? Looking back, the title of the article was misleading. Ponting and Hussey haven’t done what they need to do to silence this criticism, but they’re both moving into a position where they might be able to if they continue on their current course.
As for “planning-based criticism”, I’m not sure what you mean.
December 30th 2011 @ 9:11am
Matt F said | December 30th 2011 @ 9:11am | Report comment
It’s way too early to declare that they’ve “silenced the doubters.” Certainly, their partnership in the 2nd innings went a long way to winning the test match but it’s consistent runs that determine a career, not one test. Fail in Sydney and suddenly Hussey’s “gritty 89″ becomes “lucky 89 where he should have been out 4 times” and Ponting’s back to back 50′s become “battling innings which are as good as he can now score.”
It’s given them the Summer, if there was any doubt that they’d get it anyway, but let’s see if they can produce consistent runs (with hopefully a century or 2 in there as well) before we declare the Second Coming of Ricky.
I agree with Red Kev’s planning based criticism comment. Hussey, Ponting and Haddin are all entering the final 1-2 years of their career. The last thing we want is for them all to retire at once (say 2013 Ashes) as we would then have to rebuild all over again. We need to lessen the blow of their departures by phasing them out individually over a period of time. Possibly starting with one going at the end of this series.
December 30th 2011 @ 9:19am
Lachlan Stevens said | December 30th 2011 @ 9:19am | Report comment
I’ve never said they’ve instantly been back in the best form of their life, mind you. They have a lot of work to do over the next few games if they want to keep their positions any longer than this summer. Indeed, should they fail in Sydney it will be thrown onto the the pile of “last death throes” from both of them.
With regards to the future, the selection panel has so far been unsuccessful in blooding new talent for the team, with the Hughes experiment failing twice, and Khawaja failing to make much of an impact. If we want to remove these two players from the team we have to be able to trust the selection panel to actually pick the right person for the job, and they have thus far failed to do this. When Shane Watson comes back into the team I’d like to see him slot back into the middle order, and this might come at the expense of one of Ponting or Hussey – more likely Cowan or Warner will be edged back out of the team.
December 30th 2011 @ 11:06am
Matt F said | December 30th 2011 @ 11:06am | Report comment
Dropping Cowan or Warner would be farcical. Warner’s our last batsman to make a century and Cowan’s had one test and showed some very good signs. Though with Watson probably missing the entire series Cowan will be judged after that. I agree that Watson needs to be moved down the order. Marsh probably came back too early so he may make way for Watson if he doesn’t find runs.
Khawaja was a bit unlucky. He didn’t cement a spot but he did no worse then most of the other batsman did when he played. His top score in the 2nd innings at the Wanderers is often harshly overlooked. Hughes was averaging about 15 when recalled during the Ashes. What did we expect? There were better candidates available at the time.
It doesn’t have to be Ponting or Hussey yet. Haddin is also a candidate, and one that is struggling. Wade and Paine both look more than capable of playing test cricket (even Nevill is doing well this season) so there’s no shortage of replacements, though obviously Paine is out for a while.
We can’t have another situation where 3 players all retire at once. It didn’t work in the 80′s and didn’t work after the 06/07 Ashes. One of those 3 needs to go, if not after India, after the WIndies tour.
December 30th 2011 @ 11:19am
Lachlan Stevens said | December 30th 2011 @ 11:19am | Report comment
Farcical indeed. Let’s hope the new selection panel sees some sense over the coming months.
December 30th 2011 @ 7:04pm
lolly said | December 30th 2011 @ 7:04pm | Report comment
Sounds like everybody commenting realises that when Watson comes back it will be one of the new players dropped. And so the circus continues.
Unless Punter gets injured I feel ike he’s on the plane to England for the 2013 Ashes now. He just won’t be happy till he’s been part of another losing team over there.
December 30th 2011 @ 11:53am
Tony said | December 30th 2011 @ 11:53am | Report comment
“Silence the doubters.” Good one. Ha, ha. Ho, ho. Hee, hee. It is to laugh.
December 30th 2011 @ 11:54am
Vas Venkatramani said | December 30th 2011 @ 11:54am | Report comment
Certainly the performance of Ponting and Hussey has vindicated the selectors. Ponting was the top run scorer of the Test, while Hussey’s 89 was crucial to the final result.
The selectors have also done well to ignore the public’s ire over Shaun Marsh and stick with him. While I disagreed with his selection for Melbourne on the basis of T20 form, dropping him now after he’s had four days of match fitness (batting and fielding) doesn’t make sense for Sydney.
The challenge for the team will be to firstly deal with the Indian backlash, for they will respond strongly in Sydney – a ground they traditionally play well on. If there is grass on the wicket first morning, it may be worth Clarke sending them in so that they can do early damage and limit India to a small first innings total. That appears Australia’s best shot of victory, for I don’t think Pattinson/Siddle/Hilfenhaus will be so lethal on a flat track.
And there’s no way Australia can consider playing four quicks at the expense of Lyon. The variety is needed, plus our over rate will become even worse.