Australia’s batting cannot be fixed. Selection will not fix anything, shuffling the order will not fix anything.
There are three main issues with Australia’s batting: a lack of ability, technical deficiency and a seeming lack of mental application.
Not much can be done about ability – skill either exists or it doesn’t. The technical side can be worked on but takes time. So does mental application.
However there may be some things that can be done mid-series to start on mental application.
Often it seems as though the batsmen do not understand what their job is. Without going into the structural issues at Shield cricket and below, some simple things can be done.
In other sports, coaches often talk about ‘benchmarks’. In Australian football, for example, a certain tackle count or the ‘inside 50s’ may be a guide to team performance.
Perhaps it is time a similar model was adopted with Australia’s batting. It needs to be kept simple, so simple that even Shane Watson and David Warner can understand it.
The major failing appears to be simply not batting for long enough through collapses. So, benchmark to that:
There are 30 hours in a Test (more often 32.2 if it goes the distance as the 90 overs are rarely bowled on time). This leaves roughly eight hours an innings to get a final over result. 480 minutes for ten wickets – at its simplest, ten 48 minute partnership.
But if the team aims to see out its eight hours at only six wickets down, 80 minutes is required for each of the first six partnerships.
Perhaps the team could aim for that. Make it clear if your batting partner gets out, you dig in and both start your innings again.
This team is not full of slow scorers, so batting for 80 minutes will put some runs on the board, even with a sower start to each partnership.
It is not ideal, but the team appears to need some clear advice and a clear pass mark.
If four or five of the top six partnerships do that, there would be 200 minimum, plus whatever the tail manage to scrounge.
A few would most likely go on a bit longer, and somewhere near 350 might be considered likely if these benchmarks are hit by most partnerships.
Whether it is 80 minutes for a partnership, or something else is almost immaterial. It just needs to be simple, measurable, and considered a minimum for a pass mark.
Whatever is used will not ‘fix’ the batting. Only a revamp from junior level up, and 15 years wait, will do that.
But having definable, achievable targets might help get a little more out of the ineptitude that exists among the batting options.
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