What a disgrace, Australia failed to make the semi-finals of a home World Cup.
“Well, but we won it last year.”
“Only because we got lucky with the coin toss.”
“Maybe, but we dominated the Ashes last summer.”
“But England aren’t very good either, and before that we lost at home to India twice in three years!”
It seems like every few months the outlook on the Australian cricket team swings wildly one way or the other. Throw in retaining the Ashes in England for the first time in 18 years (but we still didn’t win the series, but we would have if Lyon didn’t drop the ball…) it is hard to get a read on the quality of this Australian team.
That’s because the answer is something we don’t like in Australia. They’re just good, not great. Is that possible? Of course, just not according to the click-bait, attention-grabbing, exaggeratory world we live in.
We were riding a high last year winning the T20 World Cup and the Ashes 4-0. But it was only the previous summer we were embarrassed to be shown up at the Gabba by India, even with our full-strength squad. 18 months before that we retained the Ashes but lost the semi-final of the World Cup.
Pat Cummins and George Bailey (Photo by Steve Bell/Getty Images)
A long English tour that was called successful by coach Justin Langer. Maybe for a good team, but a great one would not call a semi-final and a drawn Test series successful.
We, the Australian cricket fans, have been waiting for another team to match the golden days of Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, and this team flirted with getting close. But we can finally declare they didn’t get there. That doesn’t mean they’re terrible or “un-Australian” as Michael Clarke would have us believe.
It’s un-Australian to lose? We might wish. I don’t think this team didn’t try as Clarke said, they’re just not good enough. A reality we’ve tried to explain away for the last five years but is what is staring us in the face now. Australia haven’t been number one in the ICC ODI rankings since 2017, and only briefly in Tests and T20Is in that same period.
What makes it even harder to accept this team is not great is that it seems to be full of so many great players; Warner, Smith, Lyon and the fast-bowling trio of Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood. They may be great players, but does that make a team great? Evidently no.
Because a team is judged upon its results, not its individual players’ achievements or stats. A team half-full of great players still isn’t great. Oh, how we have struggled to nail down an opening partner for Warner in tests, or the perpetual uncertainty of our middle order.
This team keep us hanging on, like that Netflix series you want to give up on, but you think, “maybe it just starts slowly, it’s getting there”.
Well, this team has been warming up for five years. And based on the selectors recent Test and ODI squad announcements it looks like we’re in for another series of this same good but not great show.
Perhaps if Australia did perform badly and bottom out the selectors would have been forced to look for the next generation of players. But this team has been just good enough to keep the selectors’ faith, yet never reach the highs the fans or they had hoped to reach.
Mike
Guest
Yep, Warner has been a good player but hardly great. I'd have Langer, Hayden and Katich ahead of him at the top every day of the week in Tests - unless we were on a flat track at home of course!
Mike
Guest
Good couple of posts there from "Clear as mud" and "Pumping Dougie". All good points fellas. Our selectors seem to be chasing their tails a bit. For me, I'd like to see a complete delineation between our Test and T20 teams - and the ODI team being a hybrid of those. How we can expect to have the same three-pronged fast bowling attack across all three formats is just beyond me! So, we open with the same three every time??? We need to think outside the box more in T20. For me, Test cricket is always the boss. It matters the most. But I do want us to address the particular demands of the other two formats and select accordingly.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Even a lot of his home hundreds have been in soft 3rd innings declarations taking a big lead in, against weak opposition and/or on flat tracks and sometimes also in high scoring draws. Warner is a player of limited genuine impact. Not even close to being a great player. It doesn't go on raw numbers.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Hayden didn't perform anywhere the ball moved. His rise to supposed greatness coincided with a sharp decline in the standard of pace bowling around the world. He was every bit as much a flat track bully as Warner.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
It's the saturation of 3 formats that does it.
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
Sure...13 or 14 then but even so, the best replacement is 12 to 24 hours away. Why limit that possibility because "the squad was named 2 months ago"?
JamesH
Roar Guru
Most world cups aren't going to be in Australia, though, so it's not as if a backup player is just a short flight away. If you have your squad in India and someone goes down, you have import another one (unless they happen to be over there anyway, in which case they might as well be in the squad). A couple more players in the group would help alleviate that issue
Arfur
Guest
Averaged 49 in test cricket. Pretty solid actually....
Gary David
Roar Rookie
I do think he is a great player. You're a bit harsh on him, he was player of the tournament at last year's World Cup. Plus I can't be harsh on someone with 24 test hundreds, they may mostly be in Australia but that doesn't mean they don't count, if it was that easy why haven't more done it? He certainly hasn't done well overseas in tests, but in white ball cricket he's had success away from Australia.
Rusty Brooks
Roar Rookie
T20 is a bit of a lottery, so you’re right, just about any batsmen could open. It’s Test cricket where selectors have struggled to find suitable openers. Usman has been great since returning, but how many years has he got left? If the selectors do as you suggest and identify a young opener to bring into the team, then he needs to be given time to cement his place. If he doesn’t fire straight away, or goes through a rough patch how long will the selectors stick solid? Not that it should influence selection, but the press and public generally pile on to any player seen as underperforming.
Clear as mud
Guest
Head went from pauper to prince to pauper. i get why they don't want to punt him now, but with poor form, poor previous form where we are going - massively risky. i would have dropped him and see if he can get some Shield runs. of course he will make runs up top in ODI - everyone does these days.
matth
Roar Guru
Sorry I was talking about tests, I didn't make that clear. In the short forms I agree, now that this tournament is over and the next ODI world cup is 12 months away we need to see if there is a new generation who can carry us further.
Clear as mud
Guest
yeah but when someone like Head wins two tests with two of the most aggressive innings you will ever see... it just disappears into the fog for most people.
Clear as mud
Guest
thanks Dougie agree re the TV. i mean on the one hand I loved watching Lara in 99 and knowing almost nobody else was - but this is where you end up. even if the free to air screened a 30 mins highlight package of a day's play when we are away? (the Fox and Kayo Minis are good, they just usually also sit behind the wall.)
WINSTON
Roar Rookie
Gramme Smith was an extremely successful opening bat. Averaging around 50 if I'm not mistaken. He was the South African opener when we didn't lose an away series for circa 10 years
WINSTON
Roar Rookie
At least Australia don't choke like we perpetually do!
Don Freo
Roar Rookie
I don't think they have done enough to get another game. 8, 9, 10 an over demands something different.
matth
Roar Guru
I think this is the author's point, they have performed just well enough to get another couple of games each time. The two classics are Warner and Starc. Warner stank up the joint in England, but had done just enough previously to get some rope, then did just enough at home to stay there, then suddenly it's three years later. Same with Starc - three mediocre games but then a good fourth, which gets him three more games and then a good fourth, and so on. In tests, not nailing down the second opener, the 5 and 6 has hurt us. But I believe that Khawaja, Head and Green have that covered for now. The issue is now Starc and Warner.
matth
Roar Guru
Pretty fair call.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Great post. The continual lack of free to air international cricket on tv in Australia is really hurting the game too. People just don't watch it if it's inaccessible and then don't care or don't even realise a game just occurred. Dumb, desparate commercial decision by the ACB.