What is wrong with this Australian team?

The higher they reach, the harder they fall. The harder they fall, the more we love it. The Australian cricket team's recent peril has provided a lot of us our daily dose of schadenfreude. From being the most dominant and offensively bold team force in the sport to being annihilated in the not-so-familiar conditions of Sri Lanka and in the almost-familiar conditions in South Africa—it has been quite a downhill ride.

It was romanticized to such an extent that it was believed to be a part of the fabric of the mythical 'baggy green'.

After Sri Lanka thrashed Australia 3-0 at home in the Test series, rather than focusing on the batsmen's repeated failures in Asian conditions or the inability of the Australian spinners to match the impact of their Sri Lankan counterparts, Steven Smith focused on his team's lack of energy on the field in the post-mortem. He said, "We've got a pretty quiet group and we need that sort of energy, come South Africa and the summer as well. I thought in the Test series in Sri Lanka we lacked a fair bit of energy in the field and that probably cost us at times.

His players responded to that criticism, and in the on-going series against South Africa, there has been a marked increase in sledging from the Australians. However, as Kepler Wessels wrote in his column for Supersport, this has only resulted in more embarrassment on the field. “There is just something very wrong with the fact that players who average twenty five are trying to intimidate proven campaigners on the international stage,“ Wessels wrote.

This Australian team are a shadow of their former selves in terms of talent. You would not go past three if you count the number of match-winners in this team, and arrogance without brilliance is derisory. As a team, they are too dependent on the trio of David Warner, Steven Smith, and Mitchell Starc. The fact that Starc was their most potent bowler on Sri Lanka wickets not only speaks volumes about the pacer's ability, but also draws a grim picture about Australia's spin attack.

As McCullum said, what worked for that team, will not work for this.

The core nature of this Australian team is hugely different from the ones in the past, and they need to find a new identity for themselves, instead of embarrassing themselves by trying to emulate what the titans of Australian cricket had done on the pitch in the past. As McCullum said, what worked for that team, will not work for this.

A lot was made of his decision to rest during the ODI series in Sri Lanka after the hammering they received in the Test series. Veteran batsman Mathew Hayden questioned his attitude, along with an expected reference to the 'baggy green' and all that goes along with it, while Michael Slater insisted that Smith should have been there till the end. Two people, who have not had too much of an experience of captaining the Australian side. Michael Clarke, who has a lot of experience of captaining and resting himself, also questioned Smith's decision.

To add to Smith's woes, David Warner stepped in during his absence and guided his team to a series win in Sri Lanka, and now Smith is back at the helm, and Australia are being thrashed by the Proteas. Captaincy will not be too enjoyable for Smith at the moment, and probably it would be too un-Australian of him to take the backseat for a while, and allow someone like Warner to lead the team. But, as a player, he remains one of the most valuable assets in the Australian team, and the stress of captaincy, failure, and the pressure to live up to hyped-up traditions can adversely affect him as a player. Of all the Australian teams, from all the eras, this one can afford the least to lose a player of his caliber.