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Regardless of the result in the last Test of this Ashes series Australia will sit third on the ICC Test Rankings jumping ahead of Pakistan and England.
If the Aussies can win the series against the no. 1 ranked South Africans they will overtake India and the no.1 spot will be in reach.
Some will say that I’m getting carried away as Australia only managed to win 5 out of 14 Tests in 2013, but I will argue that there were extenuating circumstances.
For one the selectors got it horribly wrong this past year. They made way too many changes before the Tests in England and continued to make changes throughout the series.
Nathan Lyon and Ryan Harris being left out of the first Test was a serious blunder. As was completely re-arranging the batting line-up for that Test.
Even so if you watched the series in England you saw Australia put themselves in a position to win four out of five matches but somehow couldn’t win any.
It was the closest 3-0 result you will ever see.
The Indian tour though was horrific.
It’s historically the tougher place for Australian teams to tour as the conditions are so foreign. It didn’t help that the selectors picked Glenn Maxwell and Xavier Doherty as the spin options for the tour and somehow couldn’t find a spot for Steven O’keefe.
The worst part though was that Michael Clarke and Shane Watson – the captain and vice-captain on that tour – weren’t even on speaking terms.
It was clearly an unhappy team environment.
But things are different under Darren Lehmann, the team has learned to enjoy cricket again and more importantly win games of cricket again.
Clearly I believe Australia is on the rise and on the flip side I think the three other nations vying for the number 1 spot have some real concerns going forward.
I’ll start with the team Australia has demolished this summer:
England
Can the Poms turn it around like the Aussies have done this series? It’s possible but they have some major problems to solve.
Firstly the batting line-up will need to be sorted out quickly. Do they persist with Joe Root or promote Ian Bell? The number three spot is crucial in any batting line-up and when Johnathan Trott departed it left a huge hole.
If Kevin Pietersen doesn’t regain his form England will be in real trouble as there doesn’t seem to be too many batters knocking on the door.
What do they do with the wicket keeping position? Surely Bairstow isn’t the answer as he doesn’t even keep for his county side.
I suspect Matt Prior will be re-instated sooner rather than later. I’m sure the England hierarchy are hoping that a spell on the sidelines can rejuvenate him.
Is Monty Panesar the answer in the spin department? I’m not so sure but the next option is Simon Kerrigan and he looked awful in his first Test.
The fast bowlers still make England dangerous at home but until they get the batting line-up right it will be a struggle facing the Aussies and South African’s especially away from home.
India
The Indian batting line-up is young and extremely talented. They did well in South Africa but the two pitches they played on were quite slow and didn’t offer much bounce.
Until they learn how to bat on the bouncier wickets they will continue to struggle away from home. We will know more about this batting line-up after they face the Kiwis in New Zealand on no doubt some very bouncy pitches.
The bowling still is a concern, the pace bowlers don’t offer much and their spinners struggle mightily away from home.
If India is serious about becoming the number 1 test nation they will need to start preparing bouncier pitches. And until they do the Indian batsmen will continue to get blown away by England, South Africa and especially Australia on foreign soil.
South Africa
The Proteas have clearly been the benchmark this past year.
We obviously know they are a dominant pace bowling unit but the spin option is a worry. Imran Tahir hasn’t looked up to test standard and Robin Petersen isn’t threatening.
And how do they replace Kallis? South Africa have needed his bowling as an insurance policy to back up for the poor performance of the spinners.
And what do they do at the number 4 spot? Will De Villiers move up while continuing to keep? Surely his batting will start to suffer with the extra workload.
Alviro Petersen has struggled as the opener as has J.P Duminy batting down the order.
Replacing Kallis is the real concern and I can’t help wondering that he retired before the Australia series because he was genuinely scared of facing this bowling attack, mainly Mitchell Johnson.
Maybe not physically scared but certainly he knew they would bombard him with short balls to test his reflexes at the age of 38. I don’t think he would have handle that very well.
Australia
The Aussies have some concerns themselves.
How long will Chris Rogers and Brad Haddin continue? Both are 36 years old and can’t go on forever.
George Bailey hasn’t made the number six spot his own and Shane Watson is always a concern to stay on the field as an all-rounder.
I’m sure the selectors would love to use Watson down the order but there is no number three knocking down the door in Australia.
Alex Doolan is next in line but he has a first class average south of 40. Is it likely he will improve on that and have a higher average in Test matches? I can’t think of too many Aussies batsman being able to do that.
There is some quality young batsmen coming through though and If Watson can just hold onto the number three spot a little longer it will put Australia in a great position to overtake South Africa.
For me its only a matter of time before world order is restored and Australia will be no.1 again.
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