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Australia shouldn't panic about 5-0 whitewash, but Sri Lankan failure still hurts

13th October, 2016
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George Bailey should be given another shot. (AAP Image/Richard Wainwright)
Expert
13th October, 2016
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Australia have been whitewashed twice in a matter of months across two different formats. But only the debacle in Sri Lanka is of significant concern. There is no need to panic about the 5-0 ODI loss in South Africa.

The 3-0 loss in Sri Lanka exposed that, for all the success of Australia’s new young Test team home-and-away last summer, the fresh crop are as fragile in Asian conditions as those that went before them.

With a four-Test tour of India looming, the farce in Sri Lanka confirmed Australia are not close to being equipped to compete in that series.

It indicated that Australia are a long, long way from becoming a truly elite Test team capable of pushing their opponents no matter the conditions.

The same can’t be said of the whitewash in South Africa. That loss has not revealed that Australia are on the slide in ODIs. There is no need for panic whatsoever, despite the frenzied calls by many Aussie fans online to sack Steve Smith as captain.

Let’s take a long breath and consider the bigger picture. Despite losing 5-0, Australia still are the world’s number one ranked ODI side, a measure of just how huge a lead they had built up in those rankings.

They are the reigning World Cup champions, having won four of the past five editions of that tournament. They will enter the Champions Trophy in England in June as the winners of two of the past three editions of that tournament.

They arrived in South Africa fresh from a 6-1 result in the limited overs matches in Sri Lanka, even though those matches were played on the kind of sharp turning pitches which don’t suit Australia.

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In the two years which preceded this series, Australia had an astounding 36-10 win-loss record in ODIs, well clear of the next-best performed side.

Does that sound like a team in decline? Of course it doesn’t. This isn’t to suggest the 5-0 result should be ignored. The key lesson to emerge from this series is that the Australian selectors cannot simply pick any random group of cricketers and still expect to win.

I’ve already detailed just how incredibly weak was the Australian pace attack picked in this series.

The moment the Australian squad was announced it was clear to me they were going to be hammered in this series. The selectors didn’t even seem interested in trying to avoid the 5-0 result when they picked the XI for the final match.

Instead of having its best possible team in the circumstances, Australia fielded what is undoubtedly their worst attack I have seen in any format in my lifetime. John Hastings was comfortably the most experienced quick in the Australian squad, with more wickets in 50-over cricket than the combined career hauls of Joe Mennie, Chris Tremain, Scott Boland and Daniel Worrall.

Since returning to the ODI side a year ago, Hastings had averaged 24 with the ball and 38 with the bat. Yet Australia decided to rest him for the last game against SA, robbing the side of both his bowling experience and his crucial lower order batting.

Not only did Hastings needless absence leave the Australian attack even thinner, it also meant they had a horrendously long tail – number eight Joe Mennie averages ten with the bat in 50-over cricket.

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The non-selection of Hastings can only be read as a sign the selectors didn’t give a toss whether they went down 5-0.

If Australia continue to show such a lack of respect for their opponents with their ODI team selections then there will be more embarrassing tours such as this one.

Now, it must be said that Australia’s batting also wasn’t great – they put up two very poor totals in the five game series, to go with two solid scores and one brilliant return. But in David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, George Bailey and Mitch Marsh they the guts of a batting line-up which has been very effective over the past two years.

Occasionally they will have an off series, like they did here. If Australia had their full strength attack with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, James Faulkner and Glenn Maxwell they would have been able to cover, to some extent, for the average returns of their batting unit.

They still would have lost the series, I’d wager, but it is unlikely it would have been a blow out. In such a scenario we wouldn’t be seeing kneejerk reactions like the calls for Smith’s removal as captain.

For now, all Australia need to do is stay calm and pick the right ODI XI.

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