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The Australian cricket team may have been crippled by the ball tampering scandal but over the next five days it has an opportunity to register what would be one of its most rousing wins in history.
Against all odds wouldn’t begin to describe Australia’s efforts if they were to haul themselves out of the cricketing abyss to level this series.
Australia will start the fourth Test in Johannesburg today missing their two best batsmen Steve Smith and David Warner and their leading runscorer for this series Cameron Bancroft. They’ll also be farewelling coach Darren Lehmann, who will lead them for the last time after resigning yesterday.
Lehmann made the right choice. Having overseen the creation of the team culture which allowed this fiasco to unfold, he had to take responsibility.
Now Lehmann has one final opportunity to inspire his players and bring out of them a truly great performance. Because that it what it will take for them to win this Test.
Even before Cricket Australia’s bloodletting, South Africa already had overwhelming momentum in this series after winning the past two Tests, including a crushing victory at Cape Town. The Proteas are also buoyed by the return to form in the third Test of veterans Morne Morkel, Dean Elgar and Vernon Philander.
Then there’s the enormous motivation of finally winning a home series against Australia, something they have not done since 1970. South Africa would have been a scary proposition at Johannesburg even for a full-strength Australia.
Which is why it will be so special if this wounded, cobbled-together Australian team can defeat the Proteas. Only time will tell whether the terribly depressing events of this past week will galvanise the Aussies or be an insurmountable distraction.
It was sad to watch them sleepwalk through the final day at Cape Town, a team gutted from within. They bowled and fielded with minimal intensity and then collapsed in a heap with the blade.
Today they will welcome into their XI three new batsmen – Joe Burns and Matt Renshaw will open, while Peter Handscomb is expected to replace Smith.
(AAP Image/David Moir)
All three of those batsmen had fantastic starts to their Test career before being swiftly, and some would say harshly axed following brief form slumps.
Handscomb is yet to prove he has regained touch, in the main because he’s barely had the chance. Renshaw and Burns, however, will re-enter Test cricket in commanding form.
The 21-year-old left-hander has churned out 705 runs at 78 from his past dozen first-class innings, while Burns was the best batsman in the Shield this season, with 725 runs at 56 from just seven matches.
Both men performed well to help Queensland win the Sheffield Shield final this week. Of course, a deciding Test match away from home against an awesome bowling attack is a challenge on a different level. Yet Burns and Renshaw both showed enough during their previous time in the Australian team to suggest this task is not beyond them.
Batting behind them at number three is the man who has now become perhaps Australia’s most important batsman – Usman Khawaja. Suddenly Khawaja and Shaun Marsh are the elder statesmen of Australia’s batting lineup, a status which carries heavy weight.
This is far from ideal for either player given Khawaja is continuing to struggle badly away from home and Marsh has had a very disappointing series, averaging just 20.
It is with Australia’s top six that this Test lies. The visitors’ high-class attack is clearly its greatest strength and can be reasonably expected to perform well in this Test.
But if Australia are to spring a giant upset, and provide its cricketing community with a temporary reprieve from grieving, its new-look batting lineup will have to play out of their whites.