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Ten things we learned from the Australian summer of cricket

17th February, 2018
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(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Roar Guru
17th February, 2018
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1074 Reads

This weekend we’ve seen the World Club Challenge and club trials in rugby league, AFLX and ALFW in Australian Rules and the 2018 season of Super Rugby kicking off in South Africa.

The footy season is upon us which inevitably means that the summer of cricket is drawing to a close.

In a period of just over three months, we’ve seen a women’s Ashes Series, a men’s Ashes series, domestic cricket in all its forms and an international one day series. We finish up with Australia in the final of a Twenty20 tri series mid week and the final of the women’s domestic one day series next weekend in Sydney.

At the start of the season, most Australian supporters would have settled for the men’s team winning the Ashes back from England. Not many would have tipped the 4-0 scoreline. However, we learnt plenty more than that during the summer.

Here are my top ten of what we learned. Please feel free, disagree or indeed add to the list.

1. We will start with the obvious. Steve Smith is the best Test batsman in the world. His statistics over the five Tests were amazing: 687 runs, a double century, two centuries, two fifties and an average of 137.4.

The forecast battle of the captains between Steve Smith and Joe Root became a non event. Steve Smith was dominant. The stress of winning the Test series led to fatigue and a disappointing one day series for Smith but he is now well rested and ready for a tougher assignment in South Africa;

Steve Smith

(Photo by Philip Brown/Getty Images)

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2. Apart from being an outstanding role model for girls interested in playing cricket, Ellyse Perry confirmed her high standing in the game with a 213no against England in the one off Test match. The Australian women’s team won the Ashes, the Perry captained Sydney Sixers won the WBBL and the NSW Breakers are into the final of the one day tournament next weekend. All in all, not a bad summer for Ellyse Perry!

3. If there was a chink in the Australian batting order through the Test matches, it was probably Cameron Bancroft. A series that promised so much with his unbeaten 82 at the Gabba morphed into a battle for Bancroft, who looked sadly out of touch by Sydney. His form for the Perth Scorchers was good so he hopefully will regain it against South Africa.

If not, he will be looking over his shoulder at Matt Renshaw, who has been scoring plenty of runs for Queensland in the Sheffield Shield of late;

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4. Typically, after an Ashes loss, someone in the UK media will blame the first class cricket set up in England. While we all snigger at another excuse, there may be something in it. There is a lot more Twenty20 and one day matches in English cricket, which is perhaps behind their high standing in these two forms of cricket.

It may have been a detriment to their Test cricket however, with James Vince and Mark Stoneman consistently wafting at balls that they should have left to the keeper.

5. At the start of the summer, Alex Carey, Peter Nevill and perhaps even Matt Wade were in the race to be the Australian wicketkeeper for the Ashes series. When Tim Paine was picked, many were questioning the intelligence of the selectors, but it proved a masterstroke with Paine having a great summer.

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Tim Paine is 33 years old and the choice of an experienced head for the pressure of an Ashes series and an away South African series was a sound one. Alex Carey’s BBL form and composure in his limited international appearances to date means that he is now firmly next in line;

6. Much has been made of the Marsh brothers this summer and the statistics speak for themselves. Shaun Marsh found consistency over the series whist Mitchell Marsh had obviously worked tirelessly on his batting while injured.

Playing against a strong South African pace attack on wickets suiting the bowling will test the entire Australian batting unit, but if these two can continue their form into this series, Australia will be a strong chance;

Shaun Marsh

(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

7. D’Arcy Short seems to be taking the David Warner route, with his strong BBL form leading to a spot in the Australian Twenty20 team and an impressive start thus far…and all this before he has really cemented a spot in a Sheffield Shield line up. There’s plenty of water to flow under the bridge as yet, but it will be great to watch his development over the next few years.

8. We all knew that Joe Root was a great batsman coming into this Ashes series. Not all of us knew that his one failure was his inability to convert many fifties into hundreds. If we didn’t know it before, we certainly knew it after with Root scoring five fifties and no centuries. While he still topped the batting averages for the English team, the difference between him and the Australian captain could not have been any starker.

England's Joe Root during day four of the the second Investec Test match at Headingley, Leeds. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Monday August 28, 2017. See PA story CRICKET England. Photo credit should read: Nigel French/PA Wire.

(Nigel French/PA Wire)

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9. It is a battle between Australia and South Africa for the best bowling attack in the world. England’s only draw was on a road in Melbourne with Mitchell Starc out of the attack. At full strength, the Australian attack consistently dismissed England on wickets good for batting. As much as Australia’s batting line up will be a tested in South Africa, Australia’s bowlers will be counting down the days.

10. Australia women’s cricket is on the rise. North Sydney Oval was the venue for the Test match and it also held two double headers over consecutive days in the WBBL. All matches had attendances that far exceeded expectations and TV ratings are also on the rise.

The WBBL/BBL home double headers drew good crowds while the WBBL also hit a number of regional centres. The end goal of Cricket Australia would be to attract large crowds to stand alone matches and that’s why I think we will see a lot of women’s matches towards the start of the Australian summer in years to come.

So, there we are at the end of a summer of cricket where the Australian teams have largely excelled and we’ve learnt plenty. For the men, a tour to South Africa awaits while the women will shortly hop on a plane to India. The summer of cricket may be over but cricket itself never stops.

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