In 2005, Australia was beaten by the odd run and the odd umpiring howler. But by and large, it was our struggling pace attack that didn’t match England’s. And the Ashes were lost.
Jason Gillespie had a woeful series (3 wickets at 100) and played the first three Tests before he was replaced. McGrath injured himself and Lee’s 20 wickets were a very expensive at 41 per wicket.
Shane Warne was highly effective over the five Tests with 46 wickets at a very economical 19.92, while Gillespie was replaced by Tait, who took five wickets at 42.
Moving forward to 2009, after the first two Tests, we again have a struggling pace attack. We could not bowl England out in Cardiff and our pace bowling at Lords was not up to Test standard.
After a highly successful tour of South Africa, Mitchell Johnson’s bowling is now at best ragged – he is clearly struggling with 5 wickets at 41. Siddle has 7 wickets at 44.
Thankfully, the much maligned Nathan Hauritz has returned 9 wickets at 29 and Ben Hilfenhaus has been the pick of the pacemen with 9 wickets at 31.
In 2005, Ponting dithered with Gillespie. Will he do the same with Johnson and to a lesser extent Siddle?
Certainly Stuart Clark has to come back into the side for the next Test – for his accuracy and economy. And Lee, with his new found ability to reverse swing, needs to be considered when fit.
Johnson and Siddle are young and have much to offer, but also much to learn.
A stint on the sidelines would only do them good at this stage of their careers.
Greg Russell
Roar Guru
"Will this be a repeat of the 2005 Ashes result?" Yes. Here's why. In many sports a modest team almost always performs modestly. Cricket is different, in that a modest team has much bigger swings, and will perform anything from very well to very poorly. This is especially so when a modest team plays another modest team. That is what we have in this series, and the first two tests have illustrated this beautifully: in T1 we were excellent and Eng were utter crap, while in T2 Eng were good and we were poor. Averaged over the two tests we have been better than Eng (just have a look at the series statistics - Aust players dominate the top places). But because of weather in Cardiff we unluckily find ourselves 0-1 down rather than 1-1 or even 1-0. There are only 3 tests to go. For the reason just explained, the odds are that there will be at least one of these in which we are poor and Eng are good (as at Lord's). In the likely event of Eng winning that much, they are assured of a 2-2 series at worst. More likely will be a 2-1 win to them, exactly as in 2005. It will hurt but now I am expecting it and I will not be despondent (however I will be about a 0-3 if that eventuates!). We just have to face the fact that at the moment we are not strong enough to win in England when the luck goes against us (i.e., weather, umpiring), as it has so far. What will be embarrassing is that with KP out and with Flintoff on his last leg, this really is not a particularly good English side. We are good enough to beat it, but I fear that the horse has bolted with that rain in Cardiff and those dire first 2 days at Lord's. Another point: Cardiff, Lord's (see our record there) and The Oval (which is like Adelaide Oval) are the three pitches on this tour that suit us best. We've used up two of them and find ourselves 0-1 down. Conclusion: obvious.
davido
Guest
Well if history is repeated it should see Australia going in to bat (or being put in by England) on a very dodgy wicket and losing a lot of wickets on the first day.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
I would bring in Clark and drop North. It's very harsh on North given his first test ton but something has to give and it's either North or Siddle. We need 5 bowlers to take 20 wickets. Open the bowling with HIlfy and Clark and bring Johnson on 1st change to take some pressure off him. I reckon our batting can get the job done with Johnson moving up the order to 7.
tom
Guest
I wouldn't call the batting line up anaemic, Hussey and Hughes aside, the top 7 are all in decent form, and showed what they can do in the first innings at Cardiff, and to a lesser extent the second innings at Lords. Let's not forget we damn near matched England's first innings score on a 4th/5th day pitch; just the shocker of a first innings cost us.
Mushi
Guest
A stint on the sideline would be a great way to destroy two potentially great bowlers. Players need an opportunity to learn from failure, believe they have the team’s support and be given a chance to establish a role in the side. Putting these guys back into first class cricket or, even worse, back in the nets when what they lack is test level experience is counter productive. I notice little is made of our anaemic battling line up. Strange that we would drop Johnson whilst retaining batsmen who he has outscored during his career.
Rickety Knees
Roar Guru
WB - exactly, Ponting can replicate 2005 or take the bit between his teeth and create his own destiny rather sit back and let it all happen.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
This series is looking like 2005 all over again. Our bowling is not threatening at all wheras England look very good, we are on the end of some poor umpiring circa 05, Freddie is back to his best in farewell series etc... The Aussies need to change there attitude asap or the series is over.
drewster
Roar Pro
I can't see the selectors dropping Johnson for the next test but they need to let the batsmen know that 200 odd in the first innings after Englands 400 odd in unacceptable.