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Ricky Ponting has said that Australia won’t make the same mistakes that they made in 2005. The gravity of that statement will be shown in the selection of the bowling line-up during the upcoming Ashes series.
Ponting’s statement screams out on the cover of this July’s ‘Alpha’ magazine and while the article focuses more on the on-field mistakes of the 2005 side (of which there were many), the Captain must also take heed of the lessons learnt from how he dealt with Jason Gillespie.
Gillespie was not in form right from the start of that series and it was not until the fourth Test that he was dropped in place of Shaun Tait. By that stage, despite the close nature of the previous results England had the ascendancy on the field and took what resulted to be a winning 2-1 series lead at Trent Bridge.
This time around, Ponting may face a similar dilemma when it comes to Brett Lee and Stuart Clark. However, he cannot afford to give either bowler the same latitude that was given to Gillespie.
My view is that Ponting has more to worry about with Lee than with Clark; despite the 300+ wickets Lee has claimed warrants his selection in the touring party. While that may be true to a certain extent, Australia needs him to fire and take wickets right from the start. This is a high expectation for any bowler, let alone someone of Lee’s experience and record.
To win this series Australia must select a side that can take twenty wickets; a very obvious statement but it is one that Australia has had some challenges in fulfilling in recent Test matches.
Mitchell Johnson will lead the attack at Cardiff and despite the fact he is at the early stages of his career, the leadership role is one that seems to have enhanced his performance rather than inhibit it.
Since his debut in India, Peter Siddle has impressed not only with his ability to take wickets but also his willingness to run in and hit the deck hard for long spells; very similar to the role that selector Merv Hughes did during his playing days.
In my opinion, Johnson and Siddle are the only certainties to play in the First Test.
Consequently, Ricky Ponting must choose who would be able to work in with those two in sharing the pace bowling load and at this stage, I feel more comfortable with Stuart Clark being the third paceman as opposed to Brett Lee.
Clark can play the role of keeping one end tight and building the pressure on the batsmen which his colleagues can take advantage of at the other end.
The greater issue is that Lee needs far more overs in his legs than what he will have prior to the First Test. He no longer can rely on raw pace to get batsmen out and Australia have shown that they need more overs to bowl a team out than has been the case in the past.
England have shown that unlike their ‘06/’07 tour of Australia, reputation nor sentiment are no longer a part of their equation with Michael Vaughan and Steve Harmison missing selection in their initial Ashes squad.
Likewise, Ricky Ponting must ensure that neither play a role in the eleven that take the field on July 8th otherwise the nightmares of 2005 may come back to haunt him.
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