Keeping one eye on the big prize: the Ashes

With back-to-back series’ against the old foe just over eighteen months away, now is the time to build a side formidable enough to take back Australian cricket’s most treasured prize, the Ashes.

Everyone has an opinion on what team should line up on Boxing Day to take on the Indians. Depending on which rent-a-quote from which media outlet you read, you could potentially come up with a team of twenty players (which in itself could delay if not prevent recent calamitous batting collapses).

There’s no doubt that the two players under most scrutiny, Hussey and Ponting, are experienced heads and have fine records forged over long careers. But enough is enough.

It’s time for this team to move forward and build a side capable of at least threatening England in 2013, because the current mob wouldn’t go close to it.

Do we really wanting to be throwing rookies into the Lion’s den facing Anderson, Broad and co, because we’ve only just discovered that these two veterans who are nearly 39 are past it and shouldn’t tour?

Ponting’s form has been on the decline for over two years now. He looks like a cricketer who is trying too hard. There’s nothing wrong with hard work but when things stop coming naturally and the body can’t keep up with what the mind wants it to do then it’s time to exit stage right.

The argument against his exclusion on the grounds of “what he brings to the team” other than runs is fiction.

It’s a nice line and everyone will use it to appease the old fella, but the results just aren’t backing it up.

The techniques, shot selection and performance under pressure of all current batsmen have been exposed in recent tests. He might bring experience and guidance, but very little of that is being reflected out in the middle where it counts.

Hussey has had a fine year but his past four tests have been fruitless. Even when he has made runs he’s looked scratchy early on. I tend to think Hussey over thinks his natural instincts in the middle, especially when the match is poised on a knife’s edge.

That’s probably why he’s been so consistently successful in ODIs, even when his test form has been dubious, where he has little choice other than to attack from the outset.

Those citing a lack of depth in the domestic competition to replace these two need to look beyond the stats alone.

Sometimes you get a feel for a player. That he’s just made of the right stuff.

You can’t underestimate just how much Test cricket is played between the ears.

David Warner is a great example. For all his perceived technical faults early doors it takes something special to belt the likes of Steyn and Morkel all over the MCG in your international debut. He bats with a clear mind and knows his strengths and plays to them according. Not many would have thought he would be the type of opener to carry his bat in a test innings if they judged him on stroke play alone.

I get the same feeling about Shaun Marsh and Callum Ferguson.

Marsh has proven it at the top level, albeit with too many unwanted pit stops along the way. He’s tough and has good pedigree.

Ferguson is a funny one. He averages only 35 in first class cricket and gets to bat regularly on the Adelaide Hwy, but he’s a beautiful stroke maker who saves his best for the big occasion, already averaging over 40 in the shorter form for Australia. I reckon he’s a beauty.

Usman Khawaja hasn’t scored the runs he, or the rest of us, would have wanted just yet, but with no real technical flaws you get the feeling he’ll grow nicely into his role with time and increased confidence.

For some strange reason no one at the moment feels compelled to throw up bowling alternatives to the current crop – because oddly, the current crop seems pretty good.

If Harris’ body can hold up you feel he’ll be very useful in leading a young wolf pack including Cummins and Pattinson, with able support from the likes of Siddle, Starc and Mitchell Marsh.

The bold selection of these young tyros in the last few Tests has been a breath of fresh air for cricket in Australia.

Now, let’s see more of the same and have a young, fearless team ready to take it to England in 2013.