Ashes 2013
What are the Options?
July 24th
[14:30 CEST] How can Australia strengthen their batting?
Hughes, Watson, Clarke, Rogers, Haddin and Smith all average under 30 and
Smith, under 20. If Matthew Wade is brought in, who gets dropped? Rogers and
Watson are the opening pair and although you could make a case for dropping
both, there is no realistic alternative. Clarke is the captain. Wade was
dropped in favour of Haddin: you can hardly reverse that change so quickly.
Which leaves Smith and Hughes. Smith has bowled remarkably effectively so far
and has shown some reasonable form with the bat on this tour. Hughes scored 81*
in the remarkable last wicket partnership with Agar in the 1st Test
and, since, has 0, 1 & 1. He is becoming a walking wicket, falling LBW
twice to Graeme Swann and edging behind off Bresnan. Hughes badly needs runs
against Sussex in the game starting on Friday, or he could become the fall guy,
as Ed Cowan was after the 1st Test.
This Test series is showing the value of having done your
homework. Chris Rogers has made runs for fun for Middlesex, as Phil Hughes did
in 2009. However, on the county circuit it was well known that he had a
weakness outside off stump early in his innings and England have studied him
and feel confident that they can control him: two LBWs and a bowled for low
scores suggests that they know how to do it. Ed Cowan has been a big scorer for
Derbyshire and is already out of the Australian team because he looked so
vulnerable.
Some Australians are beginning to wonder, as many followers
of County Cricket did, if Australia made the wrong choice of Middlesex opener.
Sam Robson was snubbed by Australia and may play for England as a result. He is
twelve years younger than Rogers and, last time out, against County
Championship leaders, Sussex, he score 166 and 18* to take Middlesex to a huge
win. Australian fans say that as he is unproven in the Sheffield Shield he has
done nothing to demonstrate that he is good enough to play Test cricket. 986
runs at 70.4 (an average 16 better than Rogers) this season suggest that such a
parochial attitude has been a big error.
Meanwhile, with Kevin Pietersen an injury doubt for the 3rd
Test, James Taylor has been drafted into the Sussex side for Friday’s match,
suggesting that he is the likely replacement, should Pietersen not be fit.
Here, the inconvenient gap in the fixture schedule is a real problem. Taylor
had two innings last week against Warwickshire, scoring 80 and 2 in that
massive defeat and scored 5 against Surrey in early July: all his other recent
innings have been T20, which is not quite what you want as warm-up for a Test,
hence the call-up to reinforce Sussex.
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