Although England’s winning draw against India in the first test has obviously hogged the headlines in recent days, I doubt it escaped your attention that Australia were absolutely hammered by South Africa in Hobart. The Cricketboks have already won the series and Australian cricket is in crisis once again. Ho ho ho.
Our spy down under, Frazer Loveman, reports back on what has been a chastening few weeks for Steve Smith and his team. In fact, news has just broken that Rodney Marsh has stepped down as chaiman of selectors. I’d still take him over James Whitaker though. Over to you Fraser …
Australian cricket is not in good health. After South Africa’s hilarious innings victory in Hobart earlier this week, in which the Aussies were skittled for just 85 in their first dig, England supporters might actually be looking forward to next year’s Ashes series. The chances of another 0-5 whitewash seem remote at the current time, and here in Australia the media is at sixes and sevens over the team selection and how to prevent continuing embarrassment.
The first symptoms emerged in Sri Lanka when the Aussies were whitewashed and failed to score 200 in four of their six innings. Steve Smith and Shaun Marsh were the only players to bag centuries. This marked the third straight whitewash for the Baggy Green in Asia and they appeared utterly incapable of playing spin bowling.
The current series against South Africa has seen the prognosis worsen substantially. The Proteas are no longer the side that rose to number one in the world, and arrived without AB De Villiers and an unfit Morne Morkel, yet they’ve still run riot.
It all started well enough for Austrlia on a seemingly decent WACA wicket, when the double-headed pace attack of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood bundled South African out for 242 on the first day. But after Shaun Marsh and David Warner put on 158 between them in Australia’s reply, the wheels came off dramatically.
After Warner went for 97, the next nine wickets fell for just 86 runs, leaving the Aussies two behind the South African first innings score. And all this happened after Dale Steyn had injured himself. Imagine the carnage if the world’s best fast bowler had been fit and firing.
South Africa amassed 540/8 declared in their second innings to grab hold of the match. Dean Elgar (127) and JP Duminy (141) seemed utterly untroubled by the Aussie bowling with Quinton de Kock (64) and Vernon Philander (73) notching up decent runs down the order too.
Australia’s second innings started ok, but after Warner was run out by the most phenomenal piece of fielding from the diminutive Temba Bavuma, a steady stream of Aussie wickets followed. The only top-order batsman who impressed was Usman Khawaja. Despite a brave rear-guard 60 off of 153 balls from Peter Neville the Aussies didn’t have enough and Kagiso Rabada (5/92) finished them off.
Things got worse for the Baggy Greens when Shaun Marsh and Peter Siddle were ruled out for the second test at Hobart. They were replaced by the previously dropped Joe Burns and debutant Joe Mennie. Mitch Marsh, the media scapegoat, was dropped in favour of another debutant, Callum Ferguson. Things didn’t go well.
On an overcast day by the Tasmanian coast, Australia were put in to bat at 7:30 West Coast Time. By the time I woke up at 8:00 Australia had lost 4 wickets for 8 runs and were shot out for the grand total of 85. Only Steve Smith, who made 48, showed any fight. Had Australia’s sickness reached a terminal phase?
Just to rub salt into the wound, South Africa showed that batting was indeed possible on the Hobart pitch: de Kock (104) and Bavuma (74) put on 144 for the sixth wicket as South Africa posted 326. Hazelwood (6 for 89) was the only Aussie to capitalise on the miserably overcast conditions.
Everyone knows what came next. After Warner (45) and Khawaja (64) made a relatively decent start, the Aussies collpased in a heap again. After reaching 129/3, it was all over 32 runs later. Australia were defeated in a humiliating two and a half days (day 2 was entirely lost to rain).
So what now for our canary yellow friends? It is clear where their problem lies: they can’t bat for toffee. A collapse never seems to be far away. In this series they have faced some fearsome fast bowling – Rabada is already up there with the best fast bowlers in the world – and Kyle Abbott bowled like a man possessed in Australia’s second innings. However, the Australians really have no excuse.
There are some signs of life, so we’ll start with those. Smith, Warner, Khawaja and Shaun Marsh are likely safe and have all shown glimpses of their abilities in this series. The fast bowling attack is also safely in the ‘not broke, don’t fix’ box. Hazelwood in particular should give England’s top order problems next year. Mennie also looked very capable with the ball on debut in Hobart. Peter Neville has also cemented his place in the side, although there’s little competition at state level.
The rest of the side, however, look totally inadequate. It seems eons ago that Adam Voges was swanning around with a gaudy triple figures average. Unfortuanately an out of touch 37-year-old has no real future in international cricket. Joe Burns has been apocalyptically awful both in Sri Lanka and back at home. Shaun Marsh has looked ok but he can’t get fit.
Callum Ferguson has done nothing to impress so far, and unless they choose to go back to Mitch Marsh, the options left at Shield level are 30-somethings Cameron White and George Bailey or T20 specialist Glenn Maxwell. Personally I’d go with Marsh, a genuine all-rounder who was far from the worst player on the park at the WACA.
Meanwhile, Nathan Lyon now appears to only be in the team because everyone in the dressing room likes him. Ashton Agar is producing very good results at Shield level and should be given another trial before the India tour in February 2017.
For England this is obviously highly amusing and gives us all cause for optimism. Australia’s problems have no clear solutions. Indeed, some of them seem to be partly mental given their batsmen’s propensity to turn into pumpkins at the drop of a hat.
Having said that, they still have some very talented players. It’s still a year until the Ashes and a top 4 of Warner, Marsh, Khawaja and Smith is not to be sniffed at. At the moment, however, Australia’s bowling attack needs to be performing at a high level for the team to be anywhere near competitive. And long may this continue.
Frazer Loveman
Every true aussie knows how to fix this malaise – the current bunch just aren’t aggressive enough. Who needs runs and wickets when you can call the opposition and umpires a bunch of fucking cunts 85 times per minute.
Australia’s batting has been poor for a long time. Even the recent 5-0 ashes whitewash down under, they were saved by Brady bloody Haddin smashing England all over the place, routinely coming in at 110-5. That whitewash covered up a lot of issues the aussies still had
The Oz selectors do remind me of the England selectors of the 90s/00s (and sometimes more recently) in that they seem to go for the same faces again and again whilst ignoring some players with decent claims. For example, you have got to ask what Kurtis Patterson has to do to get a look in. The right age and a proper red ball bat. Same for Renshaw. Given the recent failures what do they need to do to get a chance? They also seem to have a habit of exiling promising players and perhaps they should look again at some youngsters who qualify for England but have Oz connections. The obvious one would be Sam Hain who I would assume can choose either country until he has played for one.
I’ve been watching quite a bit of this live and all the rest on extended highlights so a few thoughts…..
First, credit to SA. They themselves were an absolute shambles not long ago with injuries, unavailable players and poor selection (not cause by “transformation” – just picking the wrong players like Van Zyl and Vilas). They started to turn it around in the last Test against England, carried it on against NZ at Centurion and have obviously pushed on even more against the Aussies (not forgetting the importance of the ODI series before these Tests). Rabada and QDK have been massive additions plus the return of the underrated Philander. JP Duminy’s overhaul of his technique (Swann highlighted the change in his footwork against spin) has made him look like the player he promised to be on his first tour of Australia. There are still qustion marks at opener (Cook doesn’t look a long term answer) and the spinner (Maharaj/Piedt?) but when your main problem is how to get ABDV back into team you’re in a good place. They’re only the third team to win three consecutive series in Australia; they are going to push very hard to repeat the feat in England. They’ll go 4th in the rankings above England if they win 3-0 unless England win the series in India.
Turning to Australia…. they should have the spine of a competitive team. They have three players who’d be in most peoples World XI at opener, No.4 and opening the bowling. Khawaja and Hazlewood look Test-class players, have racked up good numbers and should have long careers. That’s half the team – and it says how bad the rest have been! Burns has never convinced, Ferguson looked out of his depth and Voges seems everyone’s favourite for the chop (his last dismissal was horrible but the two before that he got two unplayable balls. Rabada’s over to him at Perth was compared to Flintoff’s to Ponting and the last ball he nicked deviated more than any ball in the match. Nobody much cares though when a batsman is 37!). I can’t comment on alternatives like Handscomb or Maddison. I would get Maxwell in as the all-rounder. Some are going to think I’m mad for that – but he has an f/c average of 40 and I think his underlying technique is sound. What he needs is time to find the tempo of Test cricket. Australia need more runs from their keeper so Matthew Wade has to come in and the odd missed chance accepted as the price to be paid. Joe Mennie didn’t look a Test-class seamer (although I said that about Merv Hughes when I first saw him!) but the potentially strong replacements of Pattinson, Cummins and Coulter-Nile never seem to be fit. Perth and Hobart aren’t good grounds for spinners but Nathan Lyon was out-bowled in SL and it may be time to look elsewhere at least for the moment. Steve O’Keefe looks a better option than Ashton Agar to me. I wouldn’t necessarily write Lyon nor Mitch Marsh off forever but time away from the Test glare might help them regather their games.
In the backroom, I’d want to get Justin Langer in ASAP. Boof had some great achievements with the core of players around in 2014-15 but it just isn’t working with this younger group. I was also amazed that Graeme Hick was made batting coach and that there wasn’t one of the great generation of Aussie batsmen up for the job. David Saker has been bowling coach – and I’m sure everyone in England who follows cricket has made up their mind about him…..
Briefly, on the media – the C9 commentators are as embarrassing as ever. Ian Healy’s “what village is he from?” about Rabada was just dreadful on every level (the small village of Johannesburg, Heals). Ponting has been excellent on the BT highlights. However the quality of Australian cricket-writing is superb at the moment. Gideon Haigh is in a league of his own (and mostly behind a paywall) but Dan Brettig, Geoff Lemon, Russell Jackson and others are well worth seeking out for those who still value the art.
Finally, spare a thought for NZ. This Australian team beat NZ 4-0 over two series last winter. NZ have been in a tail-spin since their series in England and they desperately need a good show at home against Pakistan in their imminent series.
Just to clarify the “village” comment Simon. It was Chappell who said it.
As for the cricket itself. One thing I’ve noticed since the advent of social media is that the average Aussie fan doesn’t seem to give a hoot about results abroad. Therefore they seem to start their summer with a clean slate. Those of us that watched the SL series could see that this batting line up is pretty average.
Yes Warner can fire (he can fail just as often) Kawaja has bedded in and Smith a good couple of years but the rest are poor. Even if Voges averages a thousand vs the West Indies.
They also can’t get their fast bowlers fit and firing as a unit.
I think the selectors should take the blame, I talk to Aussie die hards and they mention names that never get given a go. The selectors seem to pick the same 6/7 batsmen all the time.
I also nod to Pakistan. I think they could well win in NZ and Australia.
I like how everyone is on their high horse about how poor aus are.. all sides in tests aren’t in good health. Simply put, from the amateur game to the top sides have prioritised white ball cricket and so the players lack he ability to be good test cricketers.
Players like hameed are rare and in spite of the system which prefers to churn out ball strikers who lack the mental side and consistency as well as technique for test cricket (roads aside where they will do well)
I am not expecting them to be as poor when England head down under. I am sure that they will find enough about them to give England a good go, they will have the pace attack to do it, so long as they keep them fit and are only a couple of reliable batsmen away from being a decent unit. They have a perfect storm of a couple of duff players having been found out and that their leading players have hardly been able to dig them out on this occasion. Warner and Smith won’t stay barren for long and Khawaja is at least decent too. Just a couple of batsmen to support them and I think they will at least be okay.
This does smack a bit of gloating (though it is the Aussies, so fair enough). There does seem to be a recent history of batting collapses in the Australian team, though. There were several in Sri Lanka, and now 3 in 4 innings against South Africa (Trent Bridge was obviously the prototype for a new style of Australian batting). There are 6 or 7 tests in the last 3 years where all 10 have gone for less than 100. Michael Vaughan puts it down to a dressing room problem. I suspect part of it is the “play your way out of trouble aggressively” approach, which doesn’t work when the ball is doing things.
You’re dead right it’s gloating. And I thoroughly enjoyed it ;-)
Just kidding. It’s just friendly banter really. I’ve been in Australia when they’re kicking our behinds and they didn’t hold back on the micky taking. I’m just getting my own back :-)
It’s simply because modern players only really know one way to play.. see ball hit ball and they don’t have the technique or mentality to grind it out. Odd player does it the odd game but it’s a rare player who does it consistently.
White ball cricketers will give you batters like the world have now, it’s not just Australia.. ALL nations have the same issues