The steady rain that threatens the playing of the third one-dayer at Edgbaston might save Australia from the ignominy of being deposed as the number one team in the 50-over game.
So far Michael Clarke's supposed top-ranked side has been mediocre at best. Michael Hussey's absence has hurt the tourists, but the batting lacks authority and quality and England's accurate attack has been stiflingly economical.
Some of the problems surround selection, and ability. Australia's batting has been in decline, in all moods of the game, since the retirements of Hayden and Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting's diminished performance.
Combine the struggle to make runs consistently - and Clarke has done plenty to hold a fading team together - with the inability to get 10 or 20 wickets and you realise that Australia has fallen off the perch.
If this series was supposed to be about preparing a squad of the best white-ballers for the next World Cup then it has already failed.
Why is Brett Lee playing? So he can break McGrath's one-day wicket record? To prepare him for a finale at the Twenty20 World Cup? And then there's Mitchell Johnson, who may well have looked good in the nets but he hasn't played for Australia since November 2011.
Mitch needs a good spell in domestic cricket to sharpen his game, because he's an ineffective, can't-bowl-to-one-side-of-the-wicket, scramble-seam destroyer of the cricket ball.
If Pattinson is seen as the great white and red hope, play him. It's nonsense to keep him the sheds, unless he's about to break down again.
Smith shouldn't be here because his batting is immature and ineffective against quality bowling, and both Bailey and Forrest are unlikely strikers at this level at the moment.
Shaun Marsh and Cameron White can still make their mark in the lead up to the Champions Trophy next year, and the World Cup beyond. White has recovered from an horrendous loss of form, and Marsh needs some runs for revival.
It's names like Maddinson, Burns, Cooper, Paterson, Quiney that might hit the headlines.
Australian cricket faces a massive challenge to regenerate. It's a task the most prescient selectors will grapple with for a long time.
Tags: onedayseries, cricket, sport, england, united-kingdom, australia First posted July 04, 2012 17:28:19
No comments:
Post a Comment