It’s not them, it’s us. Another summer of cricket has arrived. It’s time to put away the studs, shorts, and guernseys from football season, and pull out the spikes and whites.
After taking home a cool million bucks as the number one Test team earlier this year, Australia’s fall from grace has been noteworthy, going onto a 3-0 whitewash against seventh place Sri Lanka immediately after taking hold of the mace.
Once again, Australia’s weaknesses away from home were on display.
Since 2010, Australia has played 34 games at home, and another 40 on foreign soil, and in that time, the home ground advantage is obvious. In 34 outings at home, Australia have a record of 22 wins, seven draws, and just five losses. However, in the 40 matches overseas, the record is 15 wins, five draws, and 20 losses.
To further break down this record away from home, only a single win is in the subcontinent region against Sri Lanka back in 2011 (a series which also accounted for two of our five overseas draws, too).
Besides that, we have four away wins each against New Zealand and West Indies, three in South Africa, two in England and a win against Pakistan that was played at Lord’s.
Most teams have a clear advantage on their home grounds, that’s to be expected. However, is it time to ask the question of whether Australia’s home ground advantage is translating into a significant away disadvantage?
There’s been plenty of commentary over the past few summers around the ‘roads’ that have been dished up by Australian curators. Flat, bland pitches that don’t provide a great deal in the way of ball movement – which makes it harder for bowlers to create much in the way of variety in their deliveries, and makes life a lot easier for the batsmen.
Yes, batting has evolved over the past 15 years with regards to bigger sizes, and more aggressive attitudes coming into the game. However, Australians are not being helped by the fact that our pitches, too, are being served up to benefit the batsman and to make things as hard as possible for the bowler.
It’s not just an issue at the top level, but it leaves serious problems with the development of our talent, too.
Swing is almost a forgotten art in the modern Australian bowler. I still remember watching Simon Jones and Freddy Flintoff giving clinics on swing bowling as England decimated Australia in the 2005 Ashes series. Over ten years later, we see Kagiso Rabada providing a demonstration on reverse swing in Perth, and yet for some reason, our bowlers just have been unable to master this skill to that same level. Instead, we’ve fallen into a routine of repeating the same technique.
For years we had Glenn McGrath, who could capably tie down one end with beautifully consistent, stump-to-stump straight bowling, and a serious aggressor at the other end in Jason Gillespie, then Brett Lee. Exit McGrath and Lee, switch in Ryan Harris and Mitch Johnson. This summer, it’s Josh Hazlewood and Mitch Starc, but the message is pretty much the same for opposition batsmen, “You’ll have one guy bowling very straight, not giving you much room at one end. At the other, you’ll have a firebrand who’s aiming at the top of off stump hoping to catch an edge or mishit to get you out caught.
Even Craig McDermott commented in 2014 that our young bowlers were lacking the ability to swing the ball properly.
So we have up-and-coming bowlers who are almost exclusively developing their talent on pitches that encourage this uncreative style of bowling. Meanwhile, we have our up-and-coming batsmen who are plying their craft on the same pitches.
Take our players out of this setting, though, and you start to get an idea why we’re struggling as a nation so much once we leave our own country. Our bowlers aren’t equipped to take advantage of the more “characterful” pitches overseas, and our batsmen aren’t equipped to handle the way the ball comes on in those places either.
I don’t have expertise in curating a pitch, so I don’t know whether it’s the way the modern drop-in pitches are made, or if it’s just the way they’re keeping the grounds these days. However, one key to Australia returning to the level of global dominance in international cricket that we’ve seen in past golden ages is returning some character and flair into the pitches around the country.
Fui2014
Guest
I remember reading an article years ago where Waqar Younis had offered his services of swing bowling to the Australian team as a freelance coach. Needless to say the offer fell on deaf ears.
Albo
Guest
Spot on ! Too much hit & giggle limited overs stuff for the advertising dollars and baseball crowds ! Which means all the pitches have to be roads, all the batsmen need to be tonkers, all the bowlers need to be frugal with runs conceded rather than wicket takers, and when these players step to Test cricket under a new condition eg a spinning wicket or a swinging conditions , we fall in a big heap every time ! Our test team just can't bat more than a day ( 3 sessions) . That's cause that's all they know ! So if Tonker Warner gets his eye in we get over 300 , if he doesn't we get under 300, but either way, their innings is all over in a day ! They then rely on the opposition's batsmen to be afflicted the same way ! If a pair like Elgar & Duminy put their head down and grind out a partnership., its game over !!!
Cadfael
Roar Guru
That still doesn't answer the question about the season's schedule and how that is affecting our test side. What good is it to have a fast bowler come into the side who has only been able to bowl two overs maximum at a time for a total of four in a game. Batsmen who are out to do the tonk in T20 having to revert back to first class mode.
Albo
Guest
Not under todays regime !
DavSA
Guest
There is little doubt in my mind that the preparation of flat bed wickets have severely impacted on test cricket. Playing quality bowling on pitches with movement requires a solid technique. A batsmen simply cannot apply the same strategy to this scenario as he would playing T20 cricket. When New Zealand recently played SA at Centurian the wicket was very lively. All New Zealand batsmen struggled to make double figures barring Kane Williamson . He in fact looked so comfortable he was surely heading for a century but ran out of partners. At the WACA we had a similar situation. David Warner looked like he could bat all day but most of the rest looked at sixes and sevens. These flat wickets have been in vogue for many years now and it is apparent the technique is just not there to play any differently . Youngsters growing up in this era see batsmen as the true heroes of cricket . The bowlers merely as cannon fodder....Hypothetically remove the helmet and you will soon see batsmen getting into line again.
Andy
Guest
We can blame BBL and T20 all we want but in 2005 T20 was barely thought of and yet Australia is still unable to bowl or play against reverse swing.
OJP
Guest
yep, it was an odd statement at the time and remains odd; surely its about the ability to take wickets as a bowler, however they come ? Anyway, Lehmann appears to have changed his view given Siddle was sending them down at 128 kms in the last test, right around Mike Hussey pace from memory
Cadfael
Roar Guru
The us in this instance is CA and their schedule. BBL takes pride of place regardless of what they may say. The domestic one day series pushed into a 2 week slot in October. This year followed by one Shield game then into the first test.. Then if there are injuries or poor form after the mid of December, we have to rely on T20 form for test selection.
bigbaz
Guest
Would Terry Alderman get a run with this mob?
harambe
Guest
I've been discussing this for a long time with friends and agree with everything you've outlined. Our test team has suffered greatly from shield cricket becoming the unloved child locked in a dark room and the identical wickets served up around the country. Couple that with our 'top line' test players getting what, maybe 2 at most shield games a year? You don't get to go and watch a shield game nowadays and see our topline test players turning out for their state team regularly, and by not having that the current first graders don't get to compete with our 'international quality test' players. Then there is the shear ridiculous amount of cricket that is played all year round - obviously our winter is summer in a number of other test playing nations, but that shouldn't mean out test teams 'season' is actually the entire calendar year. The other problem with our bowling is that I don't think anyone since warne/mcgrath, and harris more recently, has had enough smarts about them to adapt their plan or to actually have a good plan to best the batsmen. Then there is the captain who seems unable to help the bowlers change (see make) a plan.... They just keep doing the same thing expecting a different result (a wicket) once the batsmen is set and worked them out...and if we looked up Einstein's definition of insanity....
Dan
Guest
This article is spot on. Well Written Josh. It even filters back to Sydney grade cricket where teams score 400 on a weekly basis because the pitches are so flat and the bowlers are just up and down. This offers no benefit to bats or bowlers. I do some coaching at junior level and I can't believe the amount of talented kids who are taught to "bang it in short of a length".They need to be taught the skills necessary to swing the ball to deceive a batsman, not just become athletic ball machines. Get it up there and give it a chance to move!
Josh Mitchell
Roar Rookie
Agree with you pretty much completely. The saturation is too much - and the style of play is far too different to translate from T20 to Test, even with ODIs there in the middle. Warner managed it, yes, but with a lot of growing up required in the meantime. For him, though, how many players are sitting out in the cold because their T20 value doesn't scale up the same way?
Josh Mitchell
Roar Rookie
I'd rather a 125-135k swing master than a 4-pronged straight pace attack like we have now. Any day of the week I'd take that.
AREH
Roar Guru
Good call...Chadd Sayers certainly won't even nudge Lehmann's 140kp/h barrier (I'm not even sure if this obsession still exists or not), but he is a pure swing merchant, and this includes being able to hoop the ball both ways. I think right now he would be a very smart inclusion; and is in top form having just picked up 11 wickets for the match against Tasmania. His best bet might be the Adelaide test, because there won't be such changes for Hobart; the only adjustments will be with the batting you'd think. Sayers might only range from speeds between 125-135 kp/h but quite honestly this is hardly much slower than Siddle who is in decline as a bowler, despite how much heart he continues to give. Australia could do a lot worse than select Sayers, who's swing would be a weapon, and as the article correctly points out, Australia currently lacks bowlers with such craft.
Hoy
Roar Guru
Only ourselves to blame indeed. There are hardly any differences in pitches anymore... WACA is not what it used to be. Brisbane used to turn, but now no one turns up to see whether it does or not... AFL on these grounds probably doesn't help, but really, our pitches used to have diversity, which we were used to, and our opposition were not... We now have pretty bland pitches really... That's 1. 2? Our team is promoting short form form into long term team... does that make sense? When we were at the pinnacle, it would take a player years of good figures in Sheffield Shield before they came into contention for the national team. Now, with our current lack of delayed gratification, we see someone make one good score in a 20/20, and people talk them into the national test team. That is a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of an exaggeration. 3? Our bowlers have been coddled to the point of breaking down after doing some hard yards. For years the Australian Cricket team seems to be doing this crazy rotation system, which allows for the above to happen, because they rest someone, allowing someone else to get a go... never mind they aren't really up to it. 4? There is too much cricket. They have killed the golden goose, well and truly. There used to be a season of cricket. Does anyone remember that? Can anyone remember the last time they were excited about the "summer of cricket" here? I can't remember, and I used to love going to test 1 at the Gabba. That was the start of the cricket SEASON. Now, it is all just part of the cricket SATURATION. 5? Despite spending a small fortune on every kind of support staff imaginable, Cricket Australia is too tight to pay for a good, long term fast bowling coach. Remember when Lillee wanted to do it? They snubbed him something terrible. Honestly, how many fast bowling coaches have we had lately? I can recall about 5 over the last 10 years maybe? As soon as we get good results, that coach seems to be dropped because they might actually become too expensive or something. It's crazy. For Australia to be in the position we are now, it is akin to the Windies really. A once all conquering nation, now an also ran. I can't see an easy fix, but I don't think the right questions are being asked by Cricket Australia really. Rant over for now, but I might be back...
I hate pies
Guest
No doubt it's an issue, and no doubt the curators are being instructed to prepare pitches that will last 5 days so that we have tests that will last 5 days. Our batsmen are too used to playing on roads, and they go too hard at the ball. They don't seem to teach them to have soft hands anymore.
Josh Mitchell
Roar Rookie
I do think that it's a part of the problem, yes. I probably didn't make that clear enough in the article itself.
Anthony Condon
Roar Pro
I wonder if, being the home of sports science, we've become so scientific with our pitch curation that there's a tendency to now build perfect, unblemished pitches.
AJ
Guest
Would this be the answer to why our batsmen have no clue against swing bowling as well?
matthew_gently
Guest
Lehmann certainly didn't help the culture by saying that only bowlers capable of >140 kph would be considered for the national team.