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Make no mistake; this Australian cricket side is as mentally weak as any national sporting team we have seen in recent memory.
If there were any lingering doubts that the current crop of Australian cricketers were spineless, misguided and generally clueless players, they have been alleviated in Cape Town on day two of the first test overnight.
If this is the by-product of Twenty20 cricket, Test cricket in Australia will soon be signing its death warrant, if it hasn’t already.
All too frequently these monumental batting collapses have occurred in the past few seasons. But even by their own not-so-lofty standards, 47 runs in one innings is an out and out (and out and out) disgrace.
The clichéd justification for ongoing poor shot selection during these lean years has been that the players “back themselves” – the catch-cry of the insecure cricketer.
What ever happened to backing yourself to play a well executed forward defence? Poor shot selection combined with inept execution equals a bowling rout more often than not.
No doubt Dale Steyn and co bowled well in seamer-friendly conditions, but the Australian batsmen (or “batters”, if you go by Michael Clarke’s terminology) go to water at the first hint of swing or seem off the deck.
In the old days, skilful bowling and determined batting could coexist. It’s what created a sporting contest and an engaging spectacle. A true test of patience and ability – Test cricket.
Nowadays the local batting only dominates against docile and arrow straight attacks – as if mishits with modern bats still easily clearing the rope weren’t bad enough.
Andy Bichel and Rod Marsh have just been appointed to the new selection panel, and if they’re fair dinkum about turning this debacle around the first decision will be to put Ricky Ponting out to stud.
Averaging just over 30 for the past two years would barely justify selection for a cricketing minnow, let alone one with aspirations of reattaining its position at the summit. Ponting is a shadow of himself and looks an old cricketer. Slow reflexes, constantly caught in two minds – his time is up.
It was naive of Hilditch and co to abandon recent policy and extend Ponting’s career beyond his captaincy tenure.
The “boy wonder” Phil Hughes also continues to disappoint. How a cricketer who has not addressed his glaring weaknesses earned a recall to this level is beyond mysterious.
Somewhat ironically, David Warner, who burst onto the global stage as a short form basher, has evolved his game in the longer format and must be given his chance now.
He’d publically deny it, but Simon Katich must be caught up in a justified feeling of schadenfreude.
The other ongoing weak links are Mitchell Johnson and Brad Haddin. Johnson’s good days are so far removed from his bad days in both frequency and content that he has almost become an international laughing stock. A fragile soul who saves his worst for when his best is needed.
As for Haddin, he has shown steel and resolve in recent seasons when his teammates floundered, but sadly he now appears to have caught the bug. He can count his lucky stars that Tim Paine is currently out injured. He must be accountable for his shot selection when Australia were 5/15.
Remarkably, Australia are still a chance of winning this match, thanks only to good bowling led by Shane Watson and Ryan Harris.
Unfortunately for Watson though, he is a correlative cricketer – as his bowling goes up, his batting goes down. A move to third or fourth drop in the order now appears necessary.
Whatever the result, one thing is clear; this is not the team to take Australia back to the top.
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