Unchanged Australia team for second Test
Hobart: Captain Michael Clarke has resisted the temptation to play all-rounder Dan Christian in naming an unchanged Australian team for Friday's second Test against New Zealand in Hobart.
Daniel Christian has missed out on the starting line-up for the second Test against New Zealand. © AFP
Christian was added to the squad for injured paceman Ben Cutting following Australia's emphatic nine-wicket win over the Kiwis in Brisbane last weekend, but Clarke is staying with the same eleven for the Hobart Test.
The Bellerive Oval wicket looked green with plenty of grass covering on the eve of the Test with Clarke anticipating tough work for the team that bats first on the opening day.
"The wicket has got a lot more grass on it than I've ever seen in Hobart, looks better today than yesterday, so I'm looking forward to seeing what it's like tomorrow morning," Clarke said on Thursday.
"I think day one is going to be quite tough for the batters, especially if it's overcast and then it will turn into a pretty good wicket.
"I still see Nathan Lyon playing a big part as our spinner, probably later in the game than day one."
Clarke said overhead conditions on the morning of the match would be a bigger factor than the pitch when deciding whether to bat or bowl.
"I will be more looking up than looking down," said Clarke, who has only won the toss once in his seven Tests as Australian captain.
Clarke said he had confidence in his four front-line bowlers to get the wickets to beat the Kiwis after newcomer James Pattinson's devastating five for 27 in New Zealand's second innings to set up an easy victory at the Gabba.
"There's probably a little concern that if your front-line bowlers don't do the job with the new ball it could be quite a long day, but I'm confident. I thought we bowled really well at the Gabba in both innings," he said.
"I'm confident I can get some overs out of Michael Hussey, myself and David Warner as part-timers, but I have to make sure I rotate the bowlers the right way and hope we bowl and field well with that new ball."
Clarke said the team bowling first will have to make good use of the new ball.
"There's going to be a bit of seam and swing through the whole game with that grass on it so if you bowl really well with the new ball you're going to have some impact," he said.
Australia: David Warner, Phillip Hughes, Usman Khawaja, Ricky Ponting, Michael Clarke (capt), Michael Hussey, Brad Haddin, Peter Siddle, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon. Dan Christian (12th man).
World Cup review - Part 1 - Australia, Bangladesh, England, India & Ireland
28 years ago, I was rudely woken up by relatives screaming "We have won the World Cup". It is quite likely that Saturday's final between India & Sri Lanka also ended around the same time as that game in 1983. I was well awake this time around!
I can't recall exactly when I started following cricket with a lot of interest, but I definitely recall watching games from the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia keenly. I did watch at least 1 day's play of the India v Pakistan test at Chepauk in 1987 and definitely remember Azhar taking a blinder of a catch. I can't recollect if it was off a spinner (Maninder) or off a medium pacer (Raju Kulkarni), most likely the latter since I didn't bunk school, and the last day of the test was on a Sunday. The 1987 tied test at Chepauk enthralled me. A few months earlier, I had read an account of the final over of the Brisbane tied test. Around the same time that the India v Australia game was coming to an end, with India in a winning position (50-odd runs to get with 5 wickets in hand), I was at my music class, and wondered aloud if a tie was possible. Needless to say, I got thrashed when umpire Vikram Raju's finger went up.
Back to the present though. The final was an excellent exhibition of classy batting by Jayawardene, who I still believe to be over-rated in comparison to Sangakkara, nice partnerships (Sangakkara-Dilshan, Mahela-Samaraweera & Mahela-Kulasekara, Gambhir-Virat & Gambhir-Dhoni) and a fair amount of power-hitting at the end.
Now that the tournament has ended though, teams & individuals need to introspect into whether they have achieved what they set out to.
Australia needs to take a serious look at their approach to grooming spin bowlers. Under Ricky Ponting's captaincy (possibly because of his limitations when it came to playing spin bowling in tests), the only time he used "spin" with some degree of seriousness was when he was washing his clothes. They've never identified any sort of backup options for Shane Warne other than Stuart "watch-me-bowl-a-half-tracker" MacGill. They need to find at least 1 more young batsman to play alongside Watson, Clarke & Ponting. It is rare for Aussie ex-captains to play on for too long after they've quit as captain. While Ponting may play on until the 2013 & 2014 Ashes, it is quite likely that he'd have quit ODI cricket by then.
Bangladesh need to have a rethink about their domestic cricket structure, and ensure that the top 25-30 players get a lot more exposure to cricket against first-class teams from countries that are better than them. It's quite obviouso that the talent is there, but they're not progressing beyond an odd upset every World Cup and getting thrashed by the rest of the stronger sides. Given their proximity to India & the vote that they bring to India's table at the ICC, I can't understand why they don't engage in some quid pro quo for test & ODI tours to India, and for IPL sides to pick their players.
England performed extremely well against the stronger sides, but lost it against the weaker ones (and barely survived against West Indies). This seems to indicate that it isn't a skill problem, but an inability to understand how to play limited overs cricket. Constantly complaining about the schedule doesn't get them anywhere. The Ashes-World Cup schedule was known well in advance, and they had the better part of 3-4 years since the 2007 World Cup to have a squad of 20-odd quality players to pick from. They have the bowling. Anderson, Broad, Ajmal Shahzad, Tremlett & Swann are a pretty handy lineup. But the batting is far too unidimensional with Strauss, Trott, Bell and Collingwood providing at least 2 too many 'bat 30+ overs' batsmen & only Pietersen, Bopara and Morgan providing the flair.
India won despite a bowling attack that was under threat of being smacked around every game, and a fielding unit (barring 2 or 3 players) which was ever willing to help opponents convert 1s into 2s, 2s into 3s, routine saves into 4s, etc. There's absolutely no doubt that they were the best side of the tournament, and they defeated all the top sides barring South Africa (England, perhaps conveniently, don't count). Yet, players like Virat Kohli & Sreesanth need to think about their game, and what they want to achieve. It is bizarre that Kohli, at 22, is unable to adapt his game to a situation where he goes in at #6 with a couple of overs left to go. He has to realize that he may not go in at #4 with 30 overs to go every time! Similarly, Sreesanth needs to realize that this was his 'last chance saloon'. He only had 2 opportunities to prove that he can be an effective #2 or #3 bowler in ODIs, and he fluffed up both times. If his strength is around generating late outswing, why did he pitch it so short on a very flat batting track in the final? Ashwin has most likely become the 2nd choice spinner, and I'd expect that he gets a lot more games over the span of the next 6-10 months to show that he can do a good job.
Ireland had at least 2 opportunities other than the game against England (v Bangladesh & v West Indies) to show that they should be given many more opportunities to compete against good sides, and also that a World Cup was better off with them than without them. Labels: 2011, 2011 world cup, australia, bangladesh, england, india, ireland, replica, world cup
