- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Coming into this summer’s cricket, the Australian team had been beaten up by Sri Lanka in an away Test series and thrashed 5-0 in a one-day series in South Africa.
They were fair reasons as to why the cricketing public were dreading the Test series against South Africa and then Pakistan, who we shouldn’t forget are highly ranked in the Test standings. That dread was then proved to be well founded, with the loss in Perth and the capitulation in Hobart.
The Hobart debacle provided the catalyst required to look to youth, with the selectors picking three debutantes for the Adelaide pink-ball Test – Matt Renshaw, Peter Handscomb and Nic Maddinson.
Maddinson hasn’t clicked as yet and is out of the Sydney squad but Renshaw and particularly Handscomb would seem to be a fixture of the Test team for a long time to come.
Since Hobart, the Aussies are undefeated across three Tests and the same amount of one-dayers. While the Brisbane Test proved to be way more tense than anyone, including Steve Smith, had expected, the Melbourne Test will be the one that we remember.
Disturbed by rain, it took Pakistan half the Test match to post their first innings of 443. Given rainfall again took out half of Day 4, the Australian team’s effort to score quick runs and then dismiss Pakistan almost inside two sessions on the last day was remarkable.
It must rate of one of Australia’s greatest victories of recent times, right up there with the Pakistan Test match in 1999 in Hobart when Adam Gilchrist and Justin Langer put on a 238 run partnership for the sixth wicket to guide Australia home and the Adelaide Ashes Test in 2006 when the Aussies managed to win a Test match after England scored 551 in the first innings and were seemingly in control at stumps on Day 4.
So, how does the current team compare to these sides? The 2006 team was one of the best teams in recent times, as you’d expect for teams featuring names like Hayden, Ponting, Hussey, Gilchrist, Warne and McGrath.
The 1999 team did include the Waugh twins, Ponting, McGrath, Warne and the debut Test year for Adam Gilchrist, so that team was also a team full of class.
Of the current team, you could argue only David Warner, Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc would challenge to make these former squads. However, when you add the likes of Usman Khawaja and Josh Hazlewood, who are now permanent fixtures of the Aussie team, and the new kids on the block who are making the game look easy, you have the makings of a good team in years to come.
How good? Well, of course, it’s still too early to say. But, with the tour of India coming up and then 2017 culminating with a home Ashes series, we won’t have to wait very long to find out.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.