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Australia's young quicks vaporise West Indies

Australia have a great pace attack - but they didn't stand up against India. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
Expert
14th June, 2015
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2470 Reads

Australia’s battery of young pacemen has been hyped for some time.

But, apart from some isolated standout performances from James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, this heady optimism has been prompted more by promise than results at Test level.

For various reasons, none had managed to make themselves foundations of the Australian attack.

AUSTRALIA vs WEST INDIES SCORECARD

When Australia crushed England 5-0 and then stunned South Africa 2-0 on the road, it was old timers Mitchell Johnson, Ryan Harris and Peter Siddle who led the charge.

Of that trio, the physically fragile Harris turns 36 this year, Johnson will be 33, while Siddle is only 30 but lost a huge amount of pace, and with it much of his potency, about two years ago.

It has seemed likely that none of that veteran trio would be in the Australian Test setup in two years’ time.

That changeover now, more than ever, looks like being a smooth one. It also could be fast tracked such has been the continued excellence of Hazlewood and the marked development of Starc across the two Tests in the West Indies.

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Up to lunch last night in the second Test at Jamaica, that pair had combined for 22 wickets at an average of 11 in this series.

Hazlewood’s bowling has been of a consistent excellence that very few fast bowlers can achieve.

His spells have been notable as much for the scarcity of poor deliveries as for the glut of great ones.

His ceaseless accuracy and miserly economy should make him a perfect foil for the more dynamic, intimidating and unpredictable offerings of Starc, Pattinson and Cummins.

The tall, sturdy New South Welshman has looked leagues above the West Indies batsmen.

They have found no manner in which they can prevent him from building pressure.

Australia's Josh Hazlewood Josh Hazlewood was superb against the West Indies. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)

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Eventually, Hazlewood has either undone them with a jaffa or bored them into playing an ill-advised stroke.

Just before lunch last night, his figures for the series read: 54 overs, 26 maidens, 12 for 97.

They are the kind of numbers that the man he most commonly is compared to, Glenn McGrath, produced at his peak.

It is far too early to suggest that Hazlewood can go close to matching McGrath’s Test achievements.

But with 24 wickets at an average of 19 in Tests so far he scarcely could have done more to justify the comparisons with the Australian legend.

Starc, meanwhile, looks like he could challenge McGrath’s haul of 384 wickets in ODIs.

Until now, though, his bowling with the red ball has paled in comparison. One of the reasons for that surely must be the lack of continuity he has had in his Test career, having been dropped over and over again.

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It must be said though that he hasn’t always inspired confidence with his bowling in Tests, often having proved wayward and expensive.

Prior to this series, Starc’s career economy rate was 3.4rpo which is far too high even for an out-and-out strike bowler.

There were signs though in the Tests against Pakistan last year and India in the summer that his radar had been re-calibrated for the better.

Over the past two Tests he has provided irrefutable evidence that this weakness has been addressed.

He has offered the batsmen far fewer release balls and, as a result, has been a far better partnership bowler for Australia.

In tandem with the frugal Hazlewood, he has flourished. In the second innings of this Test in Jamaica, Starc’s spell with the new ball was eight overs, four maidens, 3-11.

It probably was the best spell of his career. It most certainly was the most pinpoint.

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Starc likely will never be as consistent as Hazlewood but he won’t need to be. As a pair, they have the potential to be remarkably effective.

And on this tour they have shown that potential is now translating into performance.

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