Australia have stacked their ODI side with power hitters in the hopes of emulating England’s destructive batting lineup, but it is not a strategy which suits all opponents and all conditions.
Australia needed to become more aggressive with the blade in ODIs, having scored too slowly too often since the last World Cup, so responded by handing opportunities to ferocious ball strikers Chris Lynn and D’Arcy Short.
While a top seven laden with attacking batsmen could potentially demolish weak attacks, or help Australia try to go toe-to-toe with England, it is a gamble against South Africa, who boast the world’s best bowling unit.
Australia need to show greater flexibility in their selection, picking sides to attempt to match or neutralise the strengths of their opponent.
Playing England, for example, they should take the chance of selecting an explosive but unpredictable lineup. Because a steady batting unit which aims for totals of between 280 and 300 will not trouble the English, who routinely make scores of 330-plus.
Whereas the Aussies can pick be more conservative against South Africa, India and Pakistan, who score much more slowly than England but pose a greater threat with the ball.
Since the last World Cup, England have scored at 6.23 runs per over – well ahead of India (5.77), SA (5.75), Australia (5.74), New Zealand (5.66), Pakistan (5.50), Sri Lanka (5.29), Bangladesh (5.27) and the West Indies (5.24).
This means that, across a full 50-over innings, England on average score 312 – miles ahead of India (288), SA (288) and Australia (287).
England’s captain Eoin Morgan (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
If Australia bat first and make that average score of 287 against the English, their opponents will mow that total down. Whereas that would be a competitive total against South Africa, who lack the batting power of England now that AB de Villiers has retired and Hashim Amla is unavailable.
In the first ODI against South Africa, Australia badly lacked one or perhaps even two steady, accumulator-style batsmen. Players who anchor the innings and rotate the strike nicely, rather than focusing on boundaries. Batsmen in the mould of Steve Smith, Joe Root and Kane Williamson.
When Australia collapsed to 3-9 they needed batsmen who could revert to old-school Test-style batting, bunkering down for the next hour and halting the Proteas’ charge. Instead, they had waiting-to-bat players whose strength is attacking the bowlers in Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.
The position of middle-order anchorman was handed to wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey, who has no experience playing this role, having opened for the majority of his List A career. Carey nudged and nurdled his way to a patient but unconvincing 33 from 71 balls. It remains to be seen whether he can adapt to this foreign role.
There is no doubt, however, that against strong bowling attacks like South Africa and India, Australia would be better placed if they had a more traditional batsman – like a Callum Ferguson or Shaun Marsh – in their middle order. Marsh was picked for this current series but has been withdrawn due to injury, which meant Short came into the team.
D’Arcy Short (GEOFF CADDICK/AFP/Getty Images)
As a replacement for Marsh, Australia called up 23-year-old Ben McDermott, who is coming off a hot JLT Cup.
McDermott made 427 runs at 71 in that tournament and showed that he had multiple gears to his batting. He shapes as a strong prospect for Australia in the years to come, possibly even in all three formats.
The selectors are clearly big fans of McDermott, who made his international T20 debut this past month, only to incredibly run himself out in three of his four innings.
But my gut tells me he is being picked purely to get some exposure to international cricket, rather than as an indication he is in strong contention for the World Cup.
For that tournament, the selectors will likely favour the experience offered by Shaun Marsh and the returning duo of David Warner and Steve Smith.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
exactly same thing and exactly same example i gave them too. But you can not make those understand who doesn't want to understand.
Brasstax
Guest
Agree. But those top 3 are so incredibly consistent that they do the job 80% of the time. And Rayudu at 4 is a quality player. Mark my words. They also need to make use of KL Rahul's talent. Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid recently said that Rahul should be in India's starting eleven in all 3 formats. That guy times the ball better than Rohit Sharma.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Burns played the perfect one day innings on the last day of the Shield game against WA. A run a ball 80 on a one day like pitch against some good bowling from Richardson.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Yes I am. Every time I looked at the speed gun for Ngidi's first spell it was around 141. Rabada might have been under 140 for a bit but Steyn was pushing balls up to 145 at times.
JayG
Guest
Dhoni presently bats at #5. You are right, he has been struggling mightily. India recently played Rayudu at #4 and so far he seems the best of the lot but he needs more games to make a reasonable assessment. A lot of their success has been built around at least one of the top 3 batting through the innings. So far, it has worked out well for them because of Kolhi's consistency and Rohit's form. Any of the top 3 surviving for most part of the game has more often than not meant a victory. Get all of them early and they collapse like a pack of cards. Part of the problem is also that because their top 3 are consistent, the middle order is hardly ever put to the test. To be fair though, most teams except England depend on top order contributions for the runs and it would be a rare occasion when the #6 batsman wins you matches.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
You're right Rellum is the swing stat that I was remembering not the seam one. Cricviz are brilliant, and what that table shows is that in the all-important first 20 overs of both innings in that ODI, SA landed 60 deliveries on a good line and length vs 50 deliveries by Australia. If you're landing 20% more deliveries in a good area than the opposition you're in great stead.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Are you sure about that sir? Because I saw full match except some overs. Both wicket Steyn got was just a tad above 140. 1 of lungidi's delivery was 128. Rabada 132 & 134. For most of the match I kept an eye on speedometer. I somehow missed what you are saying then.
Ben
Roar Rookie
Who said he can’t do both? Our current top order have failed and it is definitely worth a try. He opened in a t20 in Sri Lanka and did very well and batted at 3 in shield cricket.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Finally,somebody said it. Raising my all hands and legs to second the opinion. If we see WC15 the aussie had couple of devastating openers. Then a solid middle order in smith,bailey/clarke,then Maxwell comes in and do what he does best. All of a sudden you have 300 which could be very well defended by an attack comprises of Starc,Hazz,Johnson. Why change it now? Why people keep giving weird suggestions maxwell should bat at 3-4? or do innings building?He is never going to be that. So it is better to utilize him at what he does best.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
I respect you opinion sir. But my conclusions are well documented. When a guy shows a consistent pattern of failure i really can't give him best tag. "They just beat the Proteas in their own backyard in both the limited overs series" They were also defeated in their own backyard by SA. SA lost due to their inability to handle indian spin duo chahal-yadav. If you have seen those matches it was not that India was making 300-350. It was south african batsman who made their own life difficult. South africa entered all of the formats with unsettled team. for ODI if De'villiers played, du'plesis did not. Or the vice versa. SA kept changing it at every match. Entire t20 outfit of them was an unknown entity. Despite that india did not win in test series which they wanted to win most.Most amazing part is that,one of indian top order batsman stated he was surprised because the conditions resembled more of india than SA!! It is the same VK whose top score was 92(only 50 score in 5 match series) against Australia in ODI series in india last year which featured Pat Cummins and NCN. He is from mars or jupiter is least of my concern. India got one of a life time opportunity to win in SA,ENG,AUS. Both SA,Eng is gone.Now lets see what happen in Aus.
Rob
Guest
Good on Mitch Marsh for scoring 150 but in reality he should have been out for 41. If I’m a selector I’m looking at how many opportunities a player gets, the bowling attack, the conditions and the manner in which the runs were scored. Young Bosisto scored equally to Marsh but with less 6’s. I would question if Mitch is a dangerous ball counting slogger 15.89% of runs in 6’s? If so against quality bowling his only form of scoring is slogging. That probably explains why he struggles against quality bowlers or on a pitch doing a bit? Anyway it’s a problem most of the current players have in Australia. Did anyone watch Barbar scoring his runs in 20/20? The fastest to 1000 runs with only 7.6% of shots clearing the ropes (6’s) at a SR 124. Now that’s good batting.
Rellum
Roar Guru
I think you have those numbers around the wrong way. http://cricviz.com/2018/11/cricviz-analysis-australia-v-south-africa-1st-odi/
Rellum
Roar Guru
Phehlukwayo was bowling in the 125 range. The rest were their usual 135-145.
Paul D
Roar Guru
I think he had a back injury, I remember reading he was ruled out of the JLT due to that, but he's anticipated to be back for the BBL lucrative high profile 20/20 appearances on TV tend to do wonders to accelerate the healing of niggling injuries!
Ben
Roar Rookie
But our top 6 have failed to build an inning and left Maxwell the job of saving the match. Let Maxwell get in early and give him and apportunity to build a inning and launch later.
Kopa shamsu
Guest
Seam movement? You sure? I thought i saw aussie bowlers were swinging it more.May be i am wrong.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Khawaja's injury is very untimely in that regard, otherwise he very well may be in the ODI team right now getting a chance to push for a World Cup spot.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Rellum I think Burns would be a good ODI option batting anywhere from 3-5 against this SA attack with his vast experience facing quality pace.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Actually that is wrong Kopa, because Cricviz stats showed that the Australian quicks got more seam movement across their innings than did SA's quicks. The key difference between the attacks was that the SA quicks were very accurate and hit the right areas to make that seam movement count, whereas the Aus quicks did not hit testing areas often enough.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
I think Arjun Nair has huge potential as a limited overs cricketer, was a real pity he didn't play in the recent JLT Cup, and he hasn't been playing u/23s cricket either. I wonder what's going on with him.