- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Last summer was the mother of all false dawns for the Australian cricket team. They won three series in a row, we were told bullishly. They didn’t lose a match. After a period of rebuilding, they were back on form. All true, except perhaps for the last bit.
The opponents, after all, were the weakened West Indies, without some of their best players, a shaky Pakistan, always prone to choking in Australia, and New Zealand, who have looked less and less like a Test side as the past decade had worn on.
Not to say that any of them are pushovers, but that they were hardly the sternest test around. And the results against the strongest of those sides, Pakistan, have of course recently been called into question.
Before that the Aussies somehow contrived an Ashes loss to an England team who rarely played great cricket, and had no real standout contributors. If 2005 had been the ringing clash of titans, 2009 was the sigh of a deflating beach ball. Saying you were bowled out by Stuart Broad is like saying you were savagely beaten with a feather duster.
Then there was a drawn Test series to a Pakistan team that was apparently doing its best to lose matches, followed by a loss to England in the one-dayers, and now the 1-0 scoreline as it stands in India.
The Aussie team is on the ropes, and the Brits are full of vim and vinegar.
The Aussie nemesis Broad, the fluffy menace, is gangling in from the horizon. This looks the most likely team to lose a home Ashes series since…well, since last time we lost one.
We’ve all heard the talk about how when a bunch of greats retire, it will take time for the next generation to fill their shoes. We’ve heard about them being a young developing team. Well, they’ve had several years to develop, and look weaker now than they did when the big guns first fell silent.
Given the crucial factor was allegedly the end of the Warne-McGrath era, the young Aussie bowling attack actually looks in good shape. Mitchell Johnson’s terrific bursts outweigh his terrible ones, though his temperament remains suspect.
Hilfenhaus is coming along in leaps and bounds, and Siddle, Bollinger, Harris, McKay, Pattinson, George and Starc round out an impressive-looking back-up squad.
It’s the batting that’s the worry, where young and raw is far less the issue than old and creaky.
Shane Watson and Michael Clarke are the youngest, at 29. Then there’s Marcus North at 31, with Ponting, Hussey and Katich all clocking 35.
Age itself is irrelevant, of course. India’s big three are all 37 years old. Tendulkar just won the Cricketer of the Year award, and Laxman has pulled off more fourth-innings chases in the past two months than most cricketers will in their careers. Dravid has shown few signs of slowing either. All are prodigious talents who love their game. A number is just a number.
But whether age is a factor or not, the Aussies are struggling.
Batting collapses have been a feature of the last couple of years, something that rarely happened in the previous era. With the amount of experience the current line-up has, there’s no excuse. And while it’s admirable to give players time to rediscover their touch, a team simply can’t carry that many batsmen at once.
In recent seasons, only Watson has batted like a member of a champion team. Katich has been consistent over several seasons, despite a technique that rarely looks convincing – a tendency to panic in the 90s isn’t the worst problem a batsman can have. Phillip Hughes started out batting like a champ, but was prematurely dropped.
But from there down the order, it’s a big fat serve of not much. Ponting’s star is fading: perhaps the great batsman can have a late Tendulkar revival, but if he wasn’t captain then surely his spot would be under pressure by now.
Clarke has freed himself of off-field modelling distractions, but rarely looks like a man who’s enjoying his cricket. He pokes and prods as though he can’t quite remember where he is, and his youthful confidence has retreated so far within him that it’s about to come out the other side. His lethargic performance at the World Twenty20 indicated someone immune to help or criticism.
Hussey is one of my favourite-ever players, but his Test form is among the patchiest. Even if his career-saving century in Sydney wasn’t the result of match-fixing, I can’t figure out how a bloke who was dropped three times in ten overs can be credited with playing a great innings (let alone win a Man of the Match award).
Regardless of good one-day form, Hussey now looks so nervous that he seems to freeze up every time he comes out to bat wearing Aussie whites. Someone give the man half a Valium and a gin and tonic next time he pads up, and he might just get his mojo back.
Then there’s the mystery to rival the Riddle of the Sphinx: just how the hell Marcus North keeps getting picked.
Until today, North’s four centuries in 30 innings seemed a decent rate, but three of them came in his first 10. And even then he was a feast or famine batsman: five of his other first ten innings were scores of 12 or less.
Still, his average to that point was an impressive 56.55. In the 20 innings since, it more than halved to 25.36. And a whopping 12 of those innings netted 10 runs or less. His century today, shaky start and all, is actually the worst thing that could have happened, as it will keep him in the side for another few games.
While he might enjoy the odd day out, his penchant for single-figure scores will make him the weak link for the Ashes and keep better candidates out. And the way North has been batting of late, recalling Glenn McGrath to number six would add a bit of steel to the middle order.
Then there’s the batting insurance policy at No. 7. Brad Haddin is a fantastic keeper – one need only think back to his catch off Salman Butt in Sydney. But his batting has been a constant disappointment, with an abject refusal to consider the context of the match. ‘Play your natural game’ is the mantra of the day, but it’s hard to play like Adam Gilchrist if you’re less than half as talented.
Of course Tim Paine has the gloves in India, but all indications are that Haddin will recover from injury and be picked for the Ashes. Perhaps we can pay someone to crash a banana truck in front of his house.
And lastly there’s poor old Nathan Hauritz. He cops a lot of flak, and he’s a tough competitor who does the best with his limited resources. But that limitation is hurting his team.
Struggling in India is no cause for indictment – plenty of spinners in different leagues to him have done the same. But twice now, in Cardiff and then Mohali, Hauritz has had the task of bowling out the last couple of tail-enders on crumbling fifth-day pitches, the role for which a spinner is in the team. Twice now he has failed to do so, and twice it has cost Australia the series. The English batsmen will look forward to a six-ball holiday every time he comes on to bowl.
What happens in the current Test isn’t really relevant. A series in India is hardly a good indicator of form or talent; it’s a cricketing otherworld where the strangest things happen. A world where Shane Warne couldn’t buy a wicket while Michael Clarke ripped the heart out of a side with 6 for 9.
But whatever happens, this is a team at its lowest ebb for many a long year.
And whatever happens, the English team will soon begin its trip to Australia, filled with more confidence than any time in living memory.