Baggy greens not all red roses

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland, and chairman of selectors John Inverarity, could be forgiven for feeling both delighted and disappointed at the same time over the Australian team.

Both delighted at crushing the world’s number two ranked side India with such consumate ease.

But Sutherland will be disappointed the first Test at the MCG, and the second at the SCG, both ended in less than four days. And the third at the WACA will end in less than three.

That translates to more than a million bucks in lost revenue, something CA can ill-afford.

This was supposed to be a cracker of a four-Test series, that’s ended up a one-way traffic fizzer.

Inverarity can be delighted with the baggy green pace attack, but bitterly disappointed with the batting. It’s been either a feast or a famine.

How can the Australians lose only one wicket for over 800 runs as they did combining the second and third Tests, then lose all 10 wickets for 155 as they did yesterday?

It doesn’t make any sense, and the fragility is even more stark on an innings by innings basis against India in this series:

* David Warner – 37, 5, 8, 180 – average 57.60.

* Ed Cowan – 68, 8, 16, 74 – 41.50.

* Shaun Marsh – 0, 3, 0, 11 – 3.50.

* Ricky Ponting – 62, 60, 134, 7 – 65.75.

* Michael Clarke – 31, 1, 329*, 18 – 126.44.

* Mike Hussey – 0, 89, 150*, 14 – 84.33.

* Brad Haddin – 27, 6, DNB, 0 – 11.00.

Clearly Ponting has been the most consistent, with Hussey and Cowan the best of the rest.

But take out Clarke’s unbeaten 329, and Warner’s 180, and they have both scored exactly 50 in three visits each to the crease.

Fragile batting rarely wins Test matches, as India has proved, about to lose a seventh successive overseas Test by large margins.

But this baggy green team has blown that fragile theory out of the water.