Australia’s Ashes failure started from the top

SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Australia will take a long,   hard look at their cricketing future after England’s Ashes   triumph yesterday and just may find it was one of their  perceived strengths that let them down over the last six weeks.

The long decline of the Australia team from the side that   put England to the sword 5-0 four years ago to the squad that   failed to regain the Ashes on home soil has been well   documented.

The loss of bowling greats like Shane Warne and Glenn   McGrath without the talent coming through to replace them,   some erratic selections, the loss of basic disciplines like   fielding well and even injuries and bad luck have all played   their part.
In this Ashes series, however, it is difficult to look   beyond the performance of their top order batsmen.

Ricky Ponting

Australia’s top four batsmen have so far accumulated just   763 runs between them in eight innings in this series.

If you take out the 352 accumulated by the best performer,   opener Shane Watson, that falls to a paltry 411.

By contrast, England’s top four have rattled up 1,593 over   the four Ashes tests and even without the prolific Alastair   Cook (577), they are still comfortably ahead of the Australian   tally.

No matter how good your bowlers are, and Australia’s have   been patchy at times in this series, they must have something   to bowl at if they are to put any pressure on the opposing   batsmen.

None of Australia’s top four made a century, while all of   England batsmen did with Cook and Trott both accumulating two.
Long before Warne and McGrath pitched up with their   wicket-busting bowling, Australia’s batting strength was   assumed, and that was no less the case at the start of the   2010-11 series.

Captain Ricky Ponting is the second most prolific batsman   ever in test cricket and his vice captain Michael Clarke is a   proven test performer.

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Mitchell Johnson

Opener Simon Katich, lost after the second test to an   Achilles injury, is a seasoned test player and his replacement   Phillip Hughes a hugely promising talent, albeit one found out   by England when they won the Ashes last year.

Watson has a major problem converting half centuries to   centuries but at least he has been making fifties on a regular   basis and is also fairly decent bowling option.

This series, however, they have to a large part looked   like the “bunnies” Mitchell Johnson and Co wanted to make of   Cook and England skipper Andrew Strauss in the face of a   tourist attack which was supposed to struggle on the hard   Australian tracks.

Whether the pressure of losing successive Ashes got to   them, or the dressing room unrest reported and denied in   November did exist, or the England bowlers were just too good,   the fact remains there is not any better batting talent out   there.

So, short of a few tweaks in the order — perhaps giving   Usman Khawaja his debut to allow Ponting and Clarke to move   down — the Australian selectors do not really have many   alternative batting options ahead of the fifth test in Sydney   next week.

The injury to the luckless fast bowler Ryan Harris will   allow them to make the sensible move of including a spinner   for Sydney without dropping Johnson or his fellow quicks Peter   Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus.

And perhaps for the batsmen, the release from the pressure   of contesting their country’s most coveted trophy might allow   them to play more freely and their true talent will shine   through at the Sydney Cricket Ground.