With the loss of the Ashes, we’re seeing the usual and expected recriminations and calling for heads to roll. Sells a few papers, but does it offer any substance?
Really, it’s not as if we were flogged in England. Actually the series was quite close.
I hated losing the Ashes and it hurts me to say it but full credit the English players who were able to find career best efforts when it mattered most. But does anyone really think they would beat us at home?
In the end, an inspired spell of fast bowling by Broad in the first innings of the last Test, a gritty performance by Panesar with the bat in the last innings of the first Test, a rock solid opening batsmen for most of the series, a good call of the coin toss in the last Test, and an uneven distribution of poor umpiring decisions all together took their toll.
If any one of those things doesn’t happen for England, we probably retain the Ashes. And maybe win the series.
We’ve all been spoiled by an era of cricketing greatness when we had three players who would make anyone’s greatest Australian XI of all time (Warne, Gilchrist and McGrath) another who would be a strong contender for that team (Hayden) and several other cricketers who were genuinely great players (Waugh, Ponting, Langer, to name a few).
With those players in the team, we were capable of dominating teams away from home.
The current Australian XI is a good team but not a great one, and in world Test cricket, where the home team enjoys a significant advantage, a good team playing away from home needs everything going its way to win.
We didn’t have that and we lost.
So where do we go from here?
With respect to the batting, we failed to record a significant opening partnership throughout the series. I don’t think Watson is the answer (too many small technical flaws to open at that level).
It’s not surprising that Hughes had a form slump, most promising young players do and I recall Ponting being dropped early in his career but let’s stick with him because no other opener in Australia has his potential.
And it’s time to find a replacement for Hussey.
If Watson’s body allows him to bowl maybe he could slot in down the order as an all rounder but otherwise I’d like to see us go for a young guy with talent that we can develop (someone like Klinger).
With respect to the bowling, everyone knows the first priority should be to find a spinner who can really turn the ball. But Hauritz did bowl well, better than I thought he could actually, and deserves to retain his place in the twelve until we find someone who can really threaten the opposition.
Our pace attack stands up well in comparison with any other the world today – we have a good mix of age and experience as well as considerable variety. Johnson could be more consistent and he has a worrying tendency to get too side-armed in his delivery action, but he’s menacing and dangerous when it’s all working for him.
Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think the captain and selectors made too many mistakes with the bowling attack.
Surely you had to take the same pace bowling attack into the First Test as dominated in South Africa, and we very nearly won the First Test, so why make a change for the second?
Maybe Stuart Clark could have played in the Third Test, but I doubt that would have changed the overall result. And since the four pace bowlers got the required 20 wickets easily in the Fourth Test, I’d have stuck with them for the last Test.
So where does that leave us?
We’re still a good team. And we’ll be a very good team if we can unearth a good spinner and develop Hughes and young middle order batsmen.
But we’re no longer a great team. And whilst we’ll win at home more often than we lose, we won’t be able to dominate other good teams away from home like we have in our recent past.
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