Australia's bowlers need to lift at Adelaide

It is not just the New Zealand bowling attack which has a point to prove in the Adelaide Tests. The Australian bowlers must improve significantly, particularly in the way they operate as a unit.

Although heavy criticism was rightly directed at the WACA over the sleepy nature of its pitch, the bowling from both sides ranged from pedestrian to scattergun for large periods of the Test.

It is understandable that Test bowlers have grown frustrated at having to operate on such unfair pitches, but that does not excuse a lack of accuracy or guile.

The Gabba deck offered plenty of assistance to both the quicks and the spinners yet the Kiwi bowlers were woeful and the Australian attack was only passable in all but a couple of incisive spells.

The Australian bowlers also are fresh from an Ashes series during which, for all the failings of their batting colleagues, they were disappointingly loose.

With all due respect to the retired Mitchell Johnson, who had a terrific Test career, he and Mitchell Starc were not well suited to being in the same team unless both were in top form. His retirement may result in a better balance being brought to the Australian attack.

Johnson was meant to be the leader of the attack but instead had been battling with waywardness, averaging 40 with the ball in his past seven Tests while conceding a whopping four runs per over.

His expensiveness heaped pressure on Starc and the third member of the pace unit Josh Hazlewood. Starc has managed quite well and has rewarded the selectors for giving him his first-ever extended run in the Test team after a ludicrously stop-start career.

Since returning to the Test team this year, Starc has taken 38 wickets at an average of 26 from nine Tests. His economy rate of 3.48 runs per over in that period certainly can improve.

But it’s not a major problem and won’t be nearly as much of an issue if Johnson’s replacement can bowl tidily.

Starc is an out-and-out wicket taker, as his phenomenal strike rate of 44 in those past nine Tests has highlighted. He is not likely ever to be a frugal bowler but is so penetrative that he doesn’t need to be.

What would make Starc even more effective is the building of pressure from the other end. The same way Johnson was at his peak with Ryan Harris, Peter Siddle and Nathan Lyon suffocating the batsmen, Starc should benefit from frugal colleagues.

Batsmen are more likely to ill-advisedly drive at one of Starc’s slanting deliveries or swingers if they have been tied up by the bowler at the other end. Johnson’s profligacy in recent times made it harder for the remainder of the attack to ratchet up pressure.

Media reports suggest Siddle is his probable replacement, and while the Victorian has lacked penetration in Tests for some time he is a master at connecting dot balls. But Siddle won’t be opening the bowling with Starc. It is Hazlewood whom Starc really needs to return to his accurate best.

Against India last summer and in the tour of the Caribbean which followed, Hazlewood almost dug craters on a good length just outside off stump such was his remarkable consistency.

With Starc seeking wickets as a priority at the other end, they looked close to the perfect new ball pairing, a wonderfully balanced pair.

In the Ashes series which followed, Hazlewood lost his radar and his confidence. Back on home soil he has been better and seemed to regain his groove as the WACA Test wound on.

The selectors clearly have tremendous faith in Hazlewood, sticking with him while the Ashes were on the line and immediately recalling him for this current series after a rest.

Siddle, though, is a threat to him as the selectors clearly favour the balance of fielding two attacking, express pacemen together with one steady, accurate seamer. Going forward it is hard to see both Siddle and Hazlewood in the same side, with only a spate of injuries to another paceman likely to see them play together at Adelaide.

Hazlewood has a brilliant first-class record at Adelaide, having taken 11 wickets at an average of 13 despite the ground having the flattest pitch in Australia. His ability to extract bounce and subtle seam movement from benign decks is the reason he is in the Test team.

At Adelaide, he has the chance to show the selectors that it is he, not Siddle, who should be Australia’s holding paceman this summer and beyond.