The PlanetCricket View: The decline of Australian Cricket

[Rohit Doshi]

From an Australians point of view, the series is obviously useless even if Aussies had won it, but from Srilanka's point of view it's a morale booster

Hope to see this competitive spirit in Cricket back.

With Pakistan so far playing good in the South Africa series it's going all good for Cricket tbh

 

[lethalhughes]

Siddle and Hilfenhaus ain't really odi bowlers.So no surprise Siddle has struggle in odi's.What does Nannes have to do to get a look in.Btw I would love to see James Pattinson given ago at some point in odi's.The kid looks ready.

 

[RoboRocks]

Syl, The first thing I would say is don't get sucked in to what happened to the West Indies. The way I see it is Australia have the qualities needed to get out of this situation. You have a great following for cricket in Australia, an acclaimed domestic structure and a great attitude to the game. The ill-discipline will go with confidence after stringing wins together.

Australia will always be competitive because of their attitude. From my point of view you have the tools to go back up, maybe not now but with time.

What aspect has been the problem is Australia don't have a leader of the bowling attack, which should be Mitchell Johnson. They should be giving him the new ball and setting the tone for the less experienced bowlers.

 

[Themer]

What aspect has been the problem is Australia don't have a leader of the bowling attack, which should be Mitchell Johnson. They should be giving him the new ball and setting the tone for the less experienced bowlers.

Therein lies the problem for me. Johnsons cannot be the leader of the attack as he is simply too inconsistent. What happens if he has another mare like he did during the Ashes last year? You don't want him setting that tone for the other bowlers.

 

[lethalhughes]

Therein lies the problem for me. Johnsons cannot be the leader of the attack as he is simply too inconsistent. What happens if he has another mare like he did during the Ashes last year? You don't want him setting that tone for the other bowlers.

Yes this attack definitely is searching for a leader.But the truth is the batting got a lot more issues than the bowling: You got two openers who have scored alot of runs, but don't seem to be that great of converting a 50 into a hundred,Ponting is clearly not the same batter again,Clarke has been really good, Hussey looks like a walking wicket every time he walks out to bat and Marcus North the less said the better.So we're basically getting the bulk of the runs from Katich,Clarke and Watson and nothing else from the rest.If you ask me , therein lies the main problem( that and the fact that we don't have a top quality spinner).If we got that sorted out i think the pace bowling attack is good enough to win games.Will take a while though before we see another top quality spinner wear the baggy green.And to make it even more baffling a spinner comes in takes 4 wickets in a odi match on debut and gets drop??? Is this some kind of a joke?

 

[RoboRocks]

I thought Krejza looked pretty good tbh. He may concede runs, but is the most likely spinner to bowl a side out. He certainly could have been persisted with a bit longer at least.

 

[lethalhughes]

I thought Krejza looked pretty good tbh. He may concede runs, but is the most likely spinner to bowl a side out. He certainly could have been persisted with a bit longer at least.

Krejza is no world beater, infact he is average at best.Says a lot when McGain and Hauritz are the best spinners in australia( i mean currently playing cricket ofcourse).The most talented spinner in the aussie domestic set up is Boyce and i reckon he is still 3-5 years away.

 

[aussie1st]

Syl, The first thing I would say is don't get sucked in to what happened to the West Indies. The way I see it is Australia have the qualities needed to get out of this situation. You have a great following for cricket in Australia, an acclaimed domestic structure and a great attitude to the game. The ill-discipline will go with confidence after stringing wins together.

I know we have the structure but if Ponting, Katich, Hussey, North all retire at the same time then we are stuck with 4 untested youngsters coming into a side ranked 5th. So most likely we will slip even further down and hence do exactly what the Windies did. We probably can come out of it sooner but we shouldn't have to come out of it sooner if we actually prepared better for it. Now I know you can't get rid of Ponting or Katich who are in form but we definitely could have got rid of North and Hussey and it's not like we don't have players saying pick me. If we didn't then fair enough stick with them and hope they come good.

 

[Covvy]

In my opinion Krejza is probably the best spinner skill wise. He can probably turn the bowl more than anyone and he's got good variasion. But he's an average bowler. He jsut doesn't have that consistency.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

This is just repeating of 2006 and 2007. Remeber we won ASHES and then we lost CB series followed by Chapple Hadlee series. Later after that, at World Cup, every one started talking about our decline but we answered our critics by kicking every ones ass and crowned ourselves with third consecutive World Cup wins. This time, same will happen, we will RISE soon. Aussie FTW

 

[Themer]

we will RISE soon.

I thought that India were number one already?

 

[AngryPixel]

Problem with Mitchell is that he is either exceptional or dreadful. He's a strike bowler so he cannot contain a batsman like McGrath. Best bet for the leader of the attack would be Brett Lee if he manage to stay fit. Even though he lost a bit in speed, he's bloody smart bowler.

 

[Themer]

Best best for the leader of the attack would be Brett Lee if he manage to stay fit. Even though he lost a bit in speed, he's bloody smart bowler.

Of all the people you could have picked he'd be very low on the list as inconsistent as Johnson if the truth be told. And he's retired from Tests.

Hilfy is going to be the leader of the Australian attack for me. Shows aggression whilst keeping things very tight and he has very few days where you'd say he's expensive or poor.

 

[AngryPixel]

Damn I forgot that... I really miss pure fast bowlers in test cricket... That was some time when Shoaib,lee, bond used to wreck havoc on batsman with sheer pace on dead tracks.

Hilfy is a intelligent bowler, pretty much in the McGrath mold. Is there any other raw fast bowler in australia??

AngryPixel added 2 Minutes and 4 Seconds later...

There hasnt been a super quick bowler since Tait. Mitch can bowl 155-157 but not consistently. It would be a effort ball every few overs.

AngryPixel added 14 Minutes and 36 Seconds later...

I'm surprised they haven't played Usman Khawaja yet?? In this matter, Indian selectors are more generous. They played Raina,Yuvi,Zaheer in their teenage and now they are damn good players.

Ideally Khawaja and Hodge should replace North and Hussey in the Test team. And in the ODI's They can play Khawaja at Hussey's place and try opening with Blizzard(Saw a few of his clips on Youtube, some serious hitting). They should give youngsters a chance before senior players retire.

 

[Themer]

Hodge

Brad Hodge? The 35 year old who's retired from FC cricket?