High time Australia's multiple missing puzzles get unearthed
Australia might look like the most dominant side at home but are they really? Thrashing Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka at home is not an accurate representation of this team. Be it the flunky opening pair, be it the fragile middle-order in Smith and Labuschagne's absence or be it one less Lyon.
85.7% of the games have been won by the home side, FC Barcelona at Camp Nou, Australia at home, all one and the same thing. 28 games the Blaugrana outfit played in 2019, winning 24 and drew 4. Australia, out of the seven played at home, won six of them to establish a kind of dominance that was reminiscent of glorious times. Away from home, we all know how bad they are - while Australia, for the longest time, been susceptible in alien conditions, Barcelona have been dealt with blows playing on pitches which does not favour their passing style.
Stunningly similar figures and more so, similar problems with lack of depth in the squad. Away from home, Tim Paine’s side has won only 3 games from the nine games that they have played elsewhere in the last two years. On the other hand, India have been the sharpest on the road and have played in conditions which are starkly different from the slow and sluggish turners at home.
So why have the Australians failed to produce such results, one may rightly ask, and all the answers would point at how they have built the squad. Steve Smith and David Warner returned and suddenly started to click, one or the other at least as Australia started looking more threatening on the field. Glimpses of the issues have been resurfaced in plenty, remember ‘The Ashes Job,’ which unlike the Italian Job was messy. How messy? Openers suffered, middle-order tumbled under pressure despite Steve ‘Superman’ Smith’s solo efforts much like how Lionel Messi is dragging Barcelona to a victory week after week.
Out of the nine away games that they have played in the last two years, Smith has been part of the playing XI for only four, wherein he scored 774 runs at an average of 110.57, Messi-esque figures when tallied in cricketing terms. Who top-scored next? An unlikely Tim Paine, who has already called this summer his last in Australia and probably his last in world cricket, well that depends on him. However, the pain that Justin Langer’s side face is their skipper is 35 and is the second-highest run-scorer, ahead of Marnus Labuschagne with 395 runs. One series that re-defined the Australian setup was the Ashes and what did we observe?
The openers are walking wickets, the middle order minus Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne fragile and the bowling depth regularly exposed. Remove the duo, who realistically do you think would play well in conditions such as South Africa, India, England and the sub-continent, some of the places where they might have to conquer if they want to reach Lord’s in the finals of the ICC Test Championship. Who possibly can replace the already sitting middle-order on the domestic circuit, or name one who can bat it out like Smith? That is where Australia are going to take the bullet and presumably are willing to take the bullet ‘Head’-on.
Let’s begin with the openers, Warner and Joe Burns have looked edgy-dodgy in the New Zealand series with the exception of one hundred in home conditions. And, Burns, in particular, looked as timid as his predecessors at the top of the order. If Australia are going to post a big total against top oppositions, they have to fire at all points in the batting order, not leave a void so big that the newbie in the team would fail to cope with it. Looking at the domestic circuit in the Marsh Sheffield Shield, I could possibly only pick one player who is experienced and can take up that role, Shaun Marsh.
However, if you have seen Marsh in his previous life with Australia, he suffered away from home sydrome, the same demon that still chases them. So that would rule the left-handed straight away from the options, who else? Alex Doolan is too young to be given the mantle and if given he should be properly groomed before he’s given a real look into the Test team.
The once-upon-a-time-I-used-to-open Usman Khawaja and Matt Renshaw do not even feature remotely at the top of the run-scorers list this season. Even more shockingly, Sean Abbott has scored more runs compared to the duo and Abbott is a bowler if you didn’t know, that’s how wrecked up the spots are currently. Labuschagne is doing all right, actually doing more than all right but what will happen if one of them get injured or worst case if the flu hits the team? In Smith’s absence from the national team following the ban, no Aussie batsmen could capitalise and throw their hands up to counter the pressure, that is how much work Smith does for the team and remove him, there is a blank.
Head away from home has looked pretty ok, headless at times against the English pace and swing. At home, the left-hander has looked his normal self, but the finals of the World Test Championship is not going to happen in Australia. Let’s look at the bowling depth, First bowlers, check! Spinner, oops! Langer’s side has spinners in the hunt for sure, when do they ever get the chance with Lyon firing all cylinders at home.
20 wickets in the series look pretty cool for numbers right, however, remove the nine he picked up in the first Test and then you have a struggling spinner in hand. Struggling spinner, who replaces him, the youngster Mitchell Swepson who has been teased into the national side more times than Jason Krezja seeing the limelight for the country. Has Swepson been given a chance or look in already in the Test side, no! He hasn’t been picked even after Australia cruising to a 2-0 lead in the three-match Test series against New Zealand.
I type all of this despite Australia leading the series 2-0 and a step away from decimating the visiting Kiwi side to a whitewash. This all happens after they have whitewashed Pakistan and Sri Lanka earlier in the same calendar year. One might say it is too critical, but at the end of the day it is what it is, and for Australia to claim their throne in 2021 at Lord’s they need to step up their selection and more so, put their foot on the paddle. When you complete a puzzle, you know that you have made all of the right choices and when Australia will complete the puzzle, THEY WOULD HAVE WON THE TEST CHAMPIONSHIP.
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