What Else Can You Tell Me?

Brad Haddin

The national cricket selectors announced a squad of sixteen to begin a seven
month long quest for the Ashes, in back to back five Test series which will dominate the cricket calendar for the second half of 2013. In doing so, they have also named seven of the squad in the Australia A team which will play a three match tour in June, whilst many of the Ashes squad are engaged in the ICC Champions Trophy.

The scheduling is again made on the basis of the belief that the modern cricketer needs little time to adjust his game before playing a deeply layered and fiercely contested Test match series. Although the Australians will be in England for three months, the five Ashes Tests themselves will be crammed into just seven weeks. If Australia plays well in the ICC event, they'll contest the final on 23rd June and then have only a couple of four day games at Taunton and Worcester to steady for the Test series. The conditions and pitch for the 1st Test at Trent Bridge will bear no resemblance to the preliminaries.

Meanwhile, Australia A, captained by Brad Haddin and with at least five players who could reasonably be expecting their names on the team sheet at Nottingham, will be swanning about in Scotland, Ireland and Bristol playing one day games against next to nobodies.

These are, of course, standard tour arrangements in the modern game. First it was drop in pitches, now its drop in cricketers. Its certainly made cricket a faster and more result oriented game but its doubtful its made it a better one.

Raking the cream off the money cake, the home administrators will stage three T20s and five ODIs after the Test series.

Ho, hum indeed.

Even before James Anderson has had time to announce he'll be targeting Michael Clarke or James Pattinson the opportunity to bristle in the media with his plans to undo Alastair Cook, the English media and even those jaundiced contemporaries in Australia, have declared this the worst side ever or since. There may well be grounds for these claims among the batsmen but the bowling presents a different story.

India can't be taken as a serious form guide. Prior to the disasters there in February/March, the Australians had continued to build momentum against good opposition and dispatched poorer company. Don't believe everything you read in the paper! India can be the sternest test for a player in the longest form of international cricket. The combination of a lack of batting experience on the toughest pitches prepared in many an Indian summer against an opposition revitalised by emerging players finally being preferred over aging stars, was too much for the Australians. No international side in similar circumstances could have done better.

That's a matter of history.

Ed Cowan

What the Indian tour did show was which of the Australians are prepared to fight ... the "when the tough get going" scenario. In this regard, Michael Clarke has shown his class before and did so again and the spine shown by others such as Peter Siddle was not a surprise. It was the younger men who, although they didn't do enough to even compete with India, showed they could learn and bite at Dhoni's men's heals when ever they could make the chance happen. Guys like Ed Cowan, who has the skills and Steve Smith, who hasn't, showed the guts you would want in your Test team. Pattinson and Nathan Lyon fought back after being plastered early in the series.

Despite one off fifties, Matt Wade, Phil Hughes were dreadfully out gunned against India's spin. Shane Watson, like Wade and Hughes averaging less than Xavier Doherty, was spun dry, but it was spin of another kind that must have come perilously close to removing Watson's name from Ashes calculations. Ultimately, his self-imposed exile from the leadership group may have been the only thing that got him on the plane to England. Not wanting team morale to descend further during three months in England by dropping the vice captain, the selectors may have chosen an easier path by not picking him for the tour. There is a sense in which a shoulder tap may have played a role.

Chris Rogers - 5000 runs
in England

England will be a place where so many of the batsmen will feel more
comfortable, with most of them having extensive experience in the conditions there. Mark Taylor's comments at the launch about the lure of the IPL, were not as pungent as his comment that Australia have four opening batsmen heading their batting list and none of them excelling. Chris Rogers' selection makes it five but his is the cleverest selection of all. Forget the plethora of runs he has in Sheffield Shield matches in the last few years for they haven't weighed as heavy as the more than 5000 he has scored in the County Championship for Middlesex and others. Whilst one can applaud the thinking behind this decision, its a harsh one on Alex Doolan. Room should have been found on the plane for him.

Clarke must rationalise his batting line up. If players can be dropped for off field misdemeanours  then its time to be serious about form. Cowan must stay for the series but Warner given two Tests to show something. Hughes shouldn't be going to England but as he has done all career, he made saving runs at the end in India and will bat at three. He gets the same two Test contract as Warner. Watson should be dropped. He's made more promises than a tart at 16. As good as he looks, he hasn't delivered for a long time.

Here in lies the conundrum for there is no "natural" number four in this team, which means Clarke, preferring to bat at five, will have to bat at four. Usman Khawaja, who should be batting at three in Hughes spot, will need to bat at five and Wade at six. The happiest man in Australian cricket, Brad Haddin would then round out the order at seven.

Clearly, when you pick five opening batsmen, you'll have a problem in the middle order.

Siddle the ultimate scrapper

Siddle and Pattinson pick themselves but the other two are not so certain. Ryan Harris finished the year strongly for Queensland but has again fallen foul of injury in the IPL and has returned home, in order to still be fit for England. Jackson Bird and Mitchell Starc will probably fight over the other seamer's spot but if Clarke wants more depth, then the all round skills of James Faulkner would feature strongly.

Its hard to imagine Australia would want to play without a spinner, giving Lyon five Tests but in conditions favouring them, an all pace attack may be the better option.

In all events, Clarke has more depth and better options with his bowlers than he does with his batsmen.

Weighing up the relative strengths, its hard to imagine this side beating England more than once in the seven weeks of the English Test summer but at least Clarke has the right man beside him now to share the load and push his chest out at the Englishman. Haddin is a fighter in the best tradition of the Aussie underdog and his re-inclusion is a reward for diligence, hard work and honesty: all traits his team mates need modelled right now.

Now we wait for three months for the other crap to be played out and the real cricket to begin.