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Not long ago, Australia’s ODI top six was impregnable. David Warner, Aaron Finch and Shane Watson were the most destructive top three in the world.
Michael Clarke and George Bailey offered experience, composure and versatility at four and five. Glenn Maxwell had swiftly become one of the game’s most intimidating batsmen at six.
While their top order remains potent, the Australians have become soft around the middle. Bailey and Maxwell have transitioned from periods of dominant form into significant troughs.
Both players have gone from being untouchable in the side just six months ago to having to scrap for their World Cup spots over the five-match ODI series against South Africa starting on Friday.
Bailey’s start to his ODI career was one of the most prolific by any batsman in the history of the game. Across his first 34 matches, he made 1535 runs at 57.
After his extraordinary tour of India late last year, where he made 478 runs at 96, he surged to second in the world ODI rankings for batsmen.
His form in 50-over cricket was so imperious that it launched him into Australia’s Test side for the Ashes despite poor Sheffield Shield form the previous summer.
Bailey was exposed as being short of Test standard by a struggling England attack which exploited his propensity for poking at balls outside off stump.
As his Test career came and went, so too did his ODI touch. Over the past 12 months, he has made just 283 runs at 24 from 13 matches.
Prior to that, Bailey had become the new Mike Hussey – a middle order talisman capable of either correcting a batting collapse or finishing off a commanding Australian innings with a flourish.
Now, the middle order is the sole weakness in Australia’s ODI batting order. They have ballistic power at the top in Warner, Watson and Finch, followed by the calm and class of Clarke.
Bailey’s reliability at five allowed them to hand the six spot to the mercurial Maxwell. The 26-year-old Victorian seized that opportunity this year, monstering attacks with his astonishing bat speed and array of innovative strokes.
Over a six-month period starting from February, he clattered 513 ODI runs at 47 with a strike rate of well above 120.
Maxwell was a bonafide match-winner, a batsman whose prowess late in the innings turned what looked set to be good totals into enormous ones.
It is difficult, however, to maintain consistency while playing in such a cavalier manner. He has found that out over recent months, returning just 139 runs at 20 from his past seven ODIs.
That is not a terminal form slump. But in a country with such a glut of 50-over batting talent you cannot afford to offer your state counterparts a glimmer of opportunity.
Fellow all-rounder Mitch Marsh staked his claim for Maxwell’s spot with some awesome striking during the recent triangular series against Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Marsh also outshone Maxwell during the Tests in Pakistan. Given the World Cup will be played on hard, bouncy home decks, Marsh’s lively seamers would appear more useful than Maxwell’s looping off breaks.
Both players are in Australia’s 13-man squad for the ODI series against South Africa starting in Perth.
Against such quality opposition, Maxwell must rediscover his form or he may find himself earmarked as merely a backup player for the World Cup.
Bailey is in a similar predicament. Test captain-in-waiting Steve Smith is pressing hard for his number five spot.
The Tasmanian still appears to have the inside lane but that could quickly change over the next two weeks.
The World Cups dreams of he and Maxwell could evaporate unless they boss the South Africans.