The World According To Adams - Don't Panic

Leave Ricky alone - for now

It being such a long summer, I absented myself from close coverage of Hobart. One look on the first morning at the dark green top of Marcus Pamplin pitch was enough to realise three days would probably be enough. In the end, rain and light prolonged the event but bowlers were the winners for a change - a fact that makes Dave Warner's last day century all the more remarkable. Why the media needs to enter into such a public hissy fit over a game in which Australia failed to win by a mere 8 runs, where our bowlers performed well and a young batsman came of age is disappointing. The same media largely ignored Australia during the winter, except for the corporate batting collapse in Capetown. Let's get real.

The issues with Phillip Hughes, Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey are not new but the instant carping and suggestions unhelpfully dropped into media circles by blokes like Allan Border - who should know better after his experiences during a testy captaincy - would be a joke if Australian cricket were not at such a delicate point of its recovery.

Hughes must go. His quartet of dismissals to the hands of Guptil in the New Zealand slips placed an ugly highlighter pen over a technique which has always been flawed and should never have been given a second chance at Test level. This has been self-evident since last summer when the media was incorrectly naming his hooking as his weakness while he keep warming the hands of slips in grade, first class and Tests. It did give rise to the best joke of the Hobart Test when Skull O'Keeffe claimed on ABC radio that if Hughes were to shave and get a nick, Guptil would pop out of his medicine chest with a bandaid.

The talk of Ponting and Hussey being close to an enforced end to their Test careers is about as helpful to Michael Clarke as a hip pocket on his undies. The ball cut off the deck wickedly in Hobart, hardly a surprise given the fresh, thick cover of grass. Any batsmen struggles in these conditions ... perhaps Englishmen less than the rest, although those types of conditions are increasingly rare in the Old Dart. For Australians, raised on a diet of fast, bouncy tracks where the ball rarely cuts and usually only swings with the right wind (Perth) or the right atmospheric conditions (Sydney), having it do both is a rarity. Perhaps the panic comes on top of the disastrous Capetown collapse but in between, our batsmen put 400+ on the Kiwis in Brisbane and chased 300 in the fourth innings to win at The Wanderers. A reality check might be needed.

Ponting was in more danger after the Sri Lankan tour and has done more than enough since to be safe until India go home at the end of January. The question mark in his future is the tour of West Indies which follows. Having watched his classy 78 in Brisbane, I'm satisfied he has the goods to take runs from the Indians on friendly pitches and with support from the Australian cricket public.

The Hussey question mark is easily the most short sighted and tenuously drawn of all. Last summer, as all the other chocolate soldiers melted under the heat of Anderson and Tremlett, he still produced sweetness. In Sri Lanka, he was player of the series with two hundreds and an average of 92. Since then, his form has been ordinary but he has earned loyalty and still has an important role to play in the middle order. Why hand India a free pass by replacing the entire middle order for Boxing Day.

Shaun Marsh - can't get his back up

The only worry that left  Hobart with Clarke's team was the ongoing problem with the swinging/cutting ball but it's a confrontation more than 18 months into the future that relates to the Hobart loss.

The news for the India series isn't helpful. Shaun Marsh looks unlikely to play in at least Melbourne and Sydney and perhaps the entire series. Ian Chappell has suggested that his career may be ending as it is beginning owing to the ongoing nature of the injury but then Michael Clarke has confronted back pain for almost all of his career. This should leave Usman Khawaja safe for now and the chance to finally cement his place in the side with some big runs. Perhaps knowing he has some guaranteed time at the crease ahead of him will let him emerge from his cocoon. Daily reports of Shane Watson's progress have revived the soap opera that was Watson and his medical support team. A calf injury has been added to the hamstring tear and  he is now making it plain that he may ... note, may ... play in Melbourne but only as a batsman. If he opens, then Clarke will be better off immediately because the guy Watson replaces wasn't even playing as that. Pat Cummins is out for the India series but thinks he might be right to play in the IPL in India!

It's about time Cricket Australia faced up to its stated belief that Test cricket is the primary goal of Australian cricket. A string of injuries to young players, a surfeit of cricket which has our better players playing too hard for too long and scheduling which is hopeless don't provide confidence in the job CA are doing. Why, for instance, is the only cricket being played during January either Test matches or the Big Bash, leading to the ludicrous situation where replacement players will be selected from Twnety20 cricket for Tests. How the hell did that happen. Even the Test skipper is scratching his head.

Given the injury situation, the Test side for Boxing Day looks like being: Warner, Watson, Khawaja, Ponting, Clarke (c), Hussey, Haddin, Siddle, Pattinson, Harris, Lyon. Dan Christian will be the likely 12th man to cover Watson. Watson in for Hughes and Ryan Harris returning at Mitchell Starc's expense. Whether Harris can back up a few days later in Sydney is problematic, so Starc may well be back.