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Mike Hussey
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Since the abysmal 3-1 loss in the most recent Ashes series, the Australian selectors have been selecting with an eye to the future. But…
Steyn, Philander, Morkel is a pretty high pedestal, up there with McGrath, Gillespie, Fleming/Bichel/Lee. What will really help Aus (or SA) reach that level of real dominance is a quality spinner who can tie down an end, snag a few wickets and keep the pressure on. I’m not talking someone quite at Warne’s callibre, but a Swann type bowler.
The depth is quite phenomenal at the moment however. Bird looked as good as anyone to come into the Australia team and refreshing to see someone hit the spot consistently. Philander has shown better than anyone how far that can take you. Starc & Johnson, bit erratic, best is very good, worst is a liability. Pattinson is good, needs to stay fit and maintain his form. Siddle is a workhorse, greatly undervalued quality. Cummins is a little off imo, too raw and should be well down the pecking order until he produces consistently in FC cricket before being conciderred again. Then add Faulkner, Hazelwood, Harris, Sandhu and the forgotten bowlers like Copeland, Hastings and McKay. None of them would look out of place in a baggy green, but seem a long way off. Phenomenal depth.
I’d still take SA’s frontline 3 over any combination of the above, but the depth is phenomenal, if 4 develop well, we’ll have a very high quality attack. They just need a spinner for support and a few runs to bowl at.
What is the Aussie's best future bowling attack?
Twice in the summer Australia had a bowler injured in the first innings, when Hilfenhaus and Pattinson went down. We have a young and fragile bodies in out pace bowling system which also sees Cummins and Harris unavailable. The lack of an all-rounder in Adelaide probably cost us the win, maybe the availlablity of Siddle and Hilfenhaus in Perth as well. We have a quality tail with the bat, Johnson, Starc, Pattinson, Siddle are more than capable, which gives us the option of a bowling all-rounder in my opinion, someone like Hastings or Cutting.
Watson has largely been hyped recently on limited overs form, but until he can convert to hundreds his batting alone is not good enough. If his body is not up to bowling, it’s not up to Test cricket. Perhaps he should lower his earnings and sit-out some more T20s.
If Watson is no longer an all-rounder, McDonald is the next option when fit.
Does the Australian Test team need an all-rounder?
I’d tend to agree with you on Moises Henriques, yet I do believe a 5th bowler is pivotal to the team. I’d vastly prefer Watson or McDonald, or even the bowling alrounder option, but he has had a good start to the first class season and is an outside option, I’d give him a better shout of not being added to the list of cricketers that simply weren’t up to it than Maxwell.
Australian cricket's future is now
The tail end of the golden era is the problem itself. Think of trying to break into the Vic batting order 3 or 4 years back, boasting Hodge, D.Huss, Rogers, White and McDonald. The same could be said for other states. The players who should be breaking through now couldn’t break in past the quality that wasn’t going to build a solid test team. As a yound player you may get a couple games, but you’d better perform or the next in line will be taking your spot very quickly. Anti-intuitively the poorer standard of the shield now, when compared to 10 years ago may be the catalyst to bring talent through in, players can now have a bit more of an extended run and develope together.
Does Australia really lack batting talent?