Is the Australian cricket captain switched on and, more importantly, what is his message?
At five for eight on Australia Day Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood’s sizzle and jag had the Poms in more trouble than the earlier settlers, but if the moist Adelaide deck came as a surprise, sadly Steve Smith’s next move didn’t.
As Eoin Morgan and Moeen Ali found comfort in the first-change bowlers the score slowly recovered to 38 after 16 overs. If your first vision of the game was the part-time Travis Head bowling the 17th over, you would have been excused for thinking England was already another step closer to a series whitewash.
And what about the four men on the fence? C’mon, the only team fazed by these tactics would have been the Anti-Corruption Unit!
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Not even a weakened park outfit would release the pressure with such ease, but for Smith it was the second time he has undermined his bowlers this series.
Back in Game 2 at the Gabba Smith opted for Head in the seventh over only for the mediocrity to slump even further with Aaron Finch’s nondescripts in the 13th.
Riding high with more than 600 Ashes runs, the current one-day series is a blip on the skipper’s memorable summer. Everything from his 90 runs off the bat has trended south and he’s not the only one – David Warner has scored 32 fewer and overall the team has struggled to reach third gear.
Smith’s drop in form barely scratches the surface of Australia’s 50-over shambles. From team selection and match strategy through to scheduling, most agree an English-style overhaul is needed. And while Smith should lead the 2019 World Cup campaign, his perplexing decisions sound more like a cry for help than an intended solution.
(AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy)
There’s no doubting a home Ashes series is a mental challenge even for the hardiest of past captains, let alone one that follows a prolonged public pay dispute. Top that with a drawn-out ODI series that now plays second fiddle to a domestic T20 competition and it’s easy to understand why Smith’s mind is a tad scrambled.
But a captain’s legacy is often defined by his coping mechanism. On the one hand there’s the stress-free Mark Taylor type while on the other hand there’s the stern and galvanising Alan Border type. Somewhere in between is the Greg Chappell type, infamous for funnelling his demons into a political underarm play aimed at alleviating player burnout.
Already we’ve seen Smith blunt stress with a flat bat. His public support of Glenn Maxwell’s omission from the ODI squad was unusual. Just as deafening, though, is his silence on Nathan Lyon’s prolonged absence.
If I was a betting man, I’d tip that Head and Finch have been used in protest against those ignorant of the offie’s short-form strike power.
Stephen
Guest
Khawaja is our best number 3 and if ever one of the middle order players failed then you can get shaun in, but we have too many allrounders and we are failing to chase down even the most simplest of targets.
Stephen
Guest
Smith is all class and our best captain, last year we lost in NZ when smith wasn't even there, it happens when we lose series. The real issue were the players selected, we should have had the best number 3 in khawaja instead of white, lyon should have played instead of zampa and we rested our best fast bowlers due to the ashes which didn't help and warner was in bad form
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Agreed. Smith and Root's ODI career stats aren't too dissimilar, although Roots 50+ average is in the elite range, compared to Smith's 42 which is still very good. Almost identical scoring rates and equitable conversion rates of 50's and 100's. As you, Smith's place in the One Day side is only under fire due to this poor series and the importance a fresh Smith will be in South Africa next month. An invigorated, energised and focussed Smith should be in the One Day side. A weary and distracted Smith would have been better replaced by another specialist batsman. Ditto for Warner.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Smith 's batting was also a liability, which he has acknowledged post series.
Jason Hosken
Roar Guru
Pretty solid line up. Depends on the pitch though. I’m a Hazey fan but like most batsman am still unsure about Tye. I like his selection but he’ll have to work hard otherwise batsman will find him out much like Faulkner. Lynn? Massive wow factor but I couldnt pick him in the 50 format, too many questions over his body. I’m not sure he’d go the distance and could be a liability in the field. Needs to prove he’s up to it I reckon. Agree, Carey not far off.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
Ha! Its usually the way - darn that Murphy! If he's fit, I'd plonk Lynn in there @ 3. My ideal team would look like: Warner & Finch Lynn Smith Carey Maxi One of Stoinis or MMarsh Starc Cummins Tye Zampa Yes, I've left out Hazey for Tye. I think Tye is better suited to short form cricket with all his variations. I stuck with Zampa over Lyon simply because leg-spin has become so important in short form cricket. But if he continues to bowl rubbish, I'd be looking at Lyon or another leggie like Swepson. I've put Carey in ahead of Paine because he's shown himself to be a more rounded short form batsman, and put him at 5 where his style of starting slow and working his way into the innings will be more suited. Obviously if we're only 2-down at the 40-over mark, he slides down the order in preference for Maxi and Stoinis/Marsh. Harsh on Stoinis or MMarsh to leave one out, but that means Maxi and the top 4 MUST perform or perish. Apart from Lynn and Carey, the team is pretty close to what played yesterday and got beat, so the perform or perish mantra must be adopted. But I'd like to see what this team would do in the next 18 months
Jason Hosken
Roar Guru
Hey Bunney, Yeah, just after I ruled a line through Stoinis I sat down and watched him rub dirt in my face for a couple of hours. I guess he was my target because I think Marsh is beginning to show more consistency and could fulfil the long term all round spot. I’d like another one or two specialist bats to save us on difficult decks and who also have the mindset to play a long innings. The all round guys, Maxwell included, can all play camioes but sometimes more is warranted. It is a tough one, I’d also hate to see a talent like Stoinis get burnt in a similar way to Henriques.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
This series shows that, but a look at Smith's ODI career as a whole shows that is a silly statement. He doesn't go for $2mil in the IPL if he can't score quick. His contemporary Kane Williamson went for a quarter of Smith's price, which shows you how good Smith is in the short form. He is out of touch no doubt, but form is temporary.
Bunney
Roar Rookie
Gday Jason, I'm shocked you want to ditch Stoinis. I said earlier in the series we needed an attacking no.3 to help us get off to a good start if one of the openers fall, and was thinking MMarsh might fit the bill. (Cam White definitely does not IMO!) But Stoinis has been awesome in his ODI tenure so far, which he displayed again yesterday playing @ #3. He might be a great long term proposition there. But your larger point about all-rounders is sound. We really need two. Pick your 4 best bowlers, 2 all-rounders, a keeper who bats aggressively, and 4 specialist batsmen. However, contrarily, I think Stoinis, MMarsh and Maxwell are all in our best batting side, and simply offer the captain loads of flexibility when it comes to making up those 10+ overs.
Jason Hosken
Roar Guru
I’d be okay with that plan. Bailey was used in a similar role, I wonder if the selectors still consider non-Test players an option.
Jason Hosken
Roar Guru
We do and I think we have to but the mix is still a work in progress. We rotate batsmen in much the same way we do bowlers. I'd have Usman and Shaun Marsh in my one-day XI but they appear to have been omitted to focus solely on Tests. Lyon too, surely deserves a chance but looks to have been omitted to preserve his flight and dip. The result is a reliance on too many all rounders and it shows in the results.
Pahul Gill
Roar Rookie
Smith should stick to Tests, he is nothing but baggage in limited overs Cricket. Smith is too slow to get going, useless in the death overs and struggles to accelerate when the pressure is on. At the end of the day, it’ll be better if Smith just chooses to focus on Tests and lets the limited overs stuff be handled by youngsters, led by an aggressive Warner.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Finch should captain all limited overs cricket. He has far more domestic captaincy experience than Smith or Warner and he’s a good tactician.
Jason Hosken
Roar Guru
I take your point there, hard to argue against the Waugh success rate. No doubt both Warne and Chappelli hold a grudge but a lot of that is driven by contrasting personalities which has also shaped their differing approach to the game. That said, there's still room for Smith to shed some conservatism in the field and stamp his authority on matches in much the same way he does with the bat.
cos1
Guest
Well put. His batting should just be put down to fatigue. Re captaincy, he has to be given a chance, and he is young enough to keep learning. But with a couple of wins in the last 15 or so matches we are really reaching crises stage. Waugh and Taylor got unceremoniously dumped for patches which weren't as bad as this one. And they were bad enough. I sometimes feel dissapointed in Australia's approach to ODI's, and Smith's. We have been mediocre before but we always despised mediocrity from our national cricket team - ask Allan Border and Bob Hawke. We seem far too comfortable with it now, almost accepting of it. We have been white-washed by above average but not great teams, we have hardly won a game overseas, and we had an atrocious record of one win in 11 games would have been met with outrage by the Australian cricketing community in any other time. Now we just talk about who we will rest for the next series, as though we can afford the luxury of doing that, like we did when we had 20 players who could play in any team in the world in the 90's/00's. Steve Smith should be captain, ideally. But surely, he has to be asked and expected to rise to the challenge. There has to be a tipping point or a benchmark where an ultimatum is needed - it should not be a dead certainty on who will captain come hell or high water when we are this bad. 2 wins from 14 games can't be allowed to become 3/4 from 25, surely. And if we go to the world cup playing as we play now we might as well not bother.
cos1
Guest
I think anyone that says Steve Waugh was a conservative captain has been listening too much to Shane Warne and his friend Ian Chappell. These are excellent commentators, but history (ie, Warne havig been dropped by Waugh, and having never led AUstralia) has gotten in the way of objective analysis in this matter, I fear. For instance, Glen McGrath's entire strategy was bowling conservatively to attacking fields. He certainly got them from Steve Waugh. There was a blip - after Australia were once beaten after declaring, he stepped back from declaring. Not that this seemed to effect his win-draw ratio, which was pretty fantastic.
J Wedlake
Guest
Warner let us down in the batting. Smith let us down in the captaincy. End of.
Jason Hosken
Roar Guru
Warner too, he’d be better off selected for Bondi than T20!!
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
Maybe that why the selectors picked Cameron White? if only he hadn't played like crap... ;)
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
I agree about the balance. With Warner and Smith contributing very little, do we seriously consider One Day games perfect for rotating test batsmen out of the side for R and R?