Growing up watching the likes of Matthew Hayden, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, and Glenn McGrath dominate all forms of cricket gave the Australian cricket public a golden era.
We knew exactly what we would get in both forms of the game. For each Test or one day series you could pick the squad and be sure of who was in the starting XI.
Our Test team didn’t differentiate from our one day squad, with the same core group of players training, travelling, and playing together.
The group played as a team and went into games with the same mentality. Trust was the key to our success, with each player confident of their teammates’ abilities.
But the stars had to call stumps on their careers, and the core was ripped out of the team. Combine this with the introduction of T20 and suddenly we have a raw group of players complaining of playing too much cricket.
This left the selectors pulling names from a hat for each series with the hope of finding something special. When we did find something special it tended to break down in a flash – such as James Pattinson or Pat Cummins. Before, if McGrath broke down you could call on Michael Kasprowicz or Andy Bichel to do a job. Now we were left replacing raw players with even less experienced players. Watching each game we have no idea who is going to be selected and no idea what sort of performance we are going to dish up.
The cricket has improved in recent years with some dominant displays at home, but we aren’t far off losing another crop of stars in Chris Rogers, Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Peter Siddle and Ryan Harris. Where will this leave us?
The key to success is stability. We may suffer initial defeat but soon enough the group will gel and success will follow. My opinion is to use the same core group of players for both Tests and one dayers. T20 should be left to blood young talent, giving them international exposure, while holding on to some experienced players to steer the ship.
Following the departure of Clarke and co., these are the players I predict to be the next Australian powerhouse.
Batsmen
Steve Smith (c)
David Warner
Phil Hughes
Alex Doolan
Usman Khawaja
Joe Burns
All-rounders
James Faulkner
Mitch Marsh
Wicketkeeper
Tim Paine
Bowlers
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Johnson
Mitchell Starc
Jackson Bird
James Pattinson
Nathan Lyon
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