Australia Lack Clarity in Their Selection

 

 

Ashes 2013

 

Do Australia Know What They Want?

 

July 29^th

 

[10:30 CEST] There is a sensation that Australia simply do not have a clear idea of what they want and where they plan to go. The latest idea is that maybe they will go into the 3^rd Test on Thursday with two front-line spinners – Agar and Lyon – presumably supported by Steve Smith. This may mean Lyon coming in for Pattinson rather than Jackson Bird, as had been expected. This could lead to Australia fielding Siddle and the injury-plagued Ryan Harris, backed-up by the more gentle pace of Shane Watson as the seam attack. Given Ryan Harris’s injury record it is a huge risk to take to make him the spearhead of a two-man pace attack and rely on the hope that he will not break down, especially as the 2^nd Test represented the largest number of deliveries that he has ever had to make in a single Test match. Nathan Lyon though has every right to feel hard done by. Even though not even Australians will claim that he is a great spinner, or even an especially good one, he is the best that they have fielded for several years and has a quite reasonable Test record. His performance at Hove reflected the confusion and lack of self-confidence that he must feel on being dropped for a promising 19 year old who has looked somewhat out of his depth bowling.

At the top of the order there are calls for Watson and/or Rogers to be dropped. While Watson’s limitations were well known, Rogers has been a major disappointment. In imperious form for Middlesex he was expected to use his knowledge of English conditions to good advantage. Instead, after three Tests he is averaging just 18 and scores of 16, 52, 15 and 6 in this series are far less than Australia hoped for. Despite one fifty, England seem to have his number. Some would like to see a return for Ed Cowan but, after 18 Tests, he averages just 31.3, well below what is expected for a specialist bat in Tests and may be lucky to have had as many opportunities as he has received. One option is for Phillip Hughes to move back up the order to try to get him away from Graeme Swann. After a thunderous start in Tests against South Africa, Phil Hughes now averages just 32.7: he is the sort of player who Australia would never have even considered for the squad in richer eras. Khawaja batted at 3 at Lords and did a decent job, but his attitude and appetite for work have often been regarded as suspect by the team management and he is not totally safe from being the man sacrificed to make room for David Warner.

Looking at the Test career averages for the top seven used by Australia in the first two Tests reminds you just how far the art of Australian batting has fallen: Rogers, 18.0; Watson, 34.9; Cowan, 31.3; Khawaja, 30.1; Hughes, 32.7; Clarke, 51.8; Smith, 29.0; and Haddin, 34.7. Apart from Clarke, no one averages over 40 and none of the rest even averages over 35 in Tests. In contrast, Cook, Root, Trott, Pietersen, Bell and Prior all average over 40 for England and Bairstow and Bresnan over 30. Even if David Warner plays, he averages 39.5 and so would still leave Australia with a top seven of which only one averages over 40 in Tests. It is a far cry from the sides that Australia fielded through most of the last fifteen years.

England though would be well advised to remember a guy called Steve Waugh. He came to England in 1989 averaging just 30.5 after 26 Tests. England had played him in Australia in 1986/87 and in 1988 and did not regard his batting as a major problem. By the end of the Ashes summer that year he averaged 40.1 and had made his point. There are still three Tests left in this series and any one of that Australian top six could suddenly become a hero with a couple of big centuries if England relax their guard.

However, the simple fact remains that to have any hope of re-gaining the Ashes Australia must win at Old Trafford and that may spur them to take some major gambles. If England win, the series is lost, but better to go down fighting. The problem is that the only positions that they seem to have clear right now are those of Clarke, Haddin and Siddle.