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The announcement of Australia’s World Cup squad was supposed to resolve doubts, not create them. But as the home side sealed the one-day series against England last night, their tilt at the global title looks about as settled as Queensland’s weather.
Where a squad of genuine contenders would generally have a clear first-choice 11 complemented by four players providing back-up or variation, Australia’s fifteen provides less a team sheet than a string of question marks.
It started when one of the few guaranteed inclusions, Mike Hussey, ripped his hamstring off the bone while batting in the first ODI in Melbourne. While he’s undergone surgery for the injury, the selectors have punted on including him. Whether he’ll recover is anyone’s guess.
Then Nathan Hauritz ruined his shoulder diving in the second match, leaving him in a similar race against time to be ready. Even if the injury heals, whether he can recapture his action so soon after such a disruption is debatable.
Shaun Tait, picked as an explosive pace option, has missed four of the five ODIs this series through various injuries, and limped off halfway through the other with a thigh problem. Mitchell Johnson missed three with an infection.
Shaun Marsh, drafted in as insurance in for Hussey, scored a match-winning century down in Hobart, then promptly pinged his hamstring in tribute. Doug Bollinger has been indifferent in both form and fitness all summer long.
Ricky Ponting, the man supposed to pilot his country to victory, hasn’t played cricket since the Boxing Day Test because of his broken finger, so has had no chance to bat himself out of his second-worst form slump this century.
Regardless of who comes good in the eyes of the physio, these walking wounded will be short on match time and sharpness going into one-day cricket’s biggest tournament. Whether they can shrug that off is a tremendous gamble.
Nor is it only recent injuries that are cause for worry. Michael Clarke has been winning matches, but his own form is dire. While he scraped back some ground with a fifty last night, he soaked up a lot of dot balls in the process.
As has been observed so often in T20, his attacking shots looked awkward, and almost as soon as he tried to start lifting the pace, he fell. Circumspect beginnings are sensible, but ODI cricket requires you to at least look for singles, not play out maidens.
Brad Haddin is an Adam Gilchrist wannabe without the skill to back it up. He’s had a good summer, but saying that Haddin is batting well is like saying you’re in good form down at the pokies. With him opening in front of Ponting and Clarke, opposition bowlers will be eyeing an easy path to No. 5.
Brett Lee has been a revelation on the comeback trail. His enthusiasm brings new life to the team – you could see in the way he ran to secure a stump after the series win just how much making it back for these matches has meant to him. With the bat or in the field, he’s had a thousand-watt grin plastered on his face.
He’s also untainted the last untainted link with the champion era, Ponting now being far more associated with the nail-chewing grimness of recent seasons than the triumphs of Steve Waugh’s side. The coming World Cup will be Lee’s last outing on a big stage. A fine servant of the game, he deserves this late renaissance.
All the same, one wouldn’t exactly call him a reassuring prospect. Given his injury history, his comeback run could derail at any time. And his erratic nature remains: a man-of-the-match 3/27 off eight overs in Sydney followed by 1/68 off eight in Adelaide.
Then there’s the form of players closer to the fringe. Xavier Doherty is Hauritz’s back-up, but the selectors can’t decide if they love or hate him.
He played the first match at Hauritz’s expense, was dropped for the second, then came back after the Hauritz injury. A choking 2/37 to suppress England in Sydney and then 0/44 in Adelaide and he was dropped again for Johnson. Will he even go to the Cup? If he does, will he play?
David Hussey is the man most likely to make way for Ponting, but in four innings he’s played one match-winning knock and two other crucial hands. He’s also been more than useful in the field, sitting second on the bowling list with seven wickets from just 15 overs at an average of 13, as well as pinging three run-outs.
Steve Smith, a bits and pieces player in the Test team, is proving his worth, with increasingly controlled bowling and a number of handy batting efforts down the order.
Then there’s John Hastings, definitely a second-choice seamer, but given a shot with Tait and Johnson absent. A little like Ryan Harris in presence and intent, he’s shown why Victoria rate him so highly, with his strict line and changes of pace making him very difficult to hit.
The efforts of these three mean that picking a team will be much less straightforward than it might have been. With the possibilities still swirling like a low-pressure system, it’s impossible to know just who’ll be lining up where against Zimbabwe three weeks from now.
Photo gallery of One Day International: Australia v England, 30 Jan 2011. Courtesy of Steven Hight – AURA Images
Steven Hight - AURA Images
Steven Hight - AURA Images
Steven Hight - AURA Images
Steven Hight - AURA Images
Steven Hight - AURA Images
Steven Hight - AURA Images