Ah, The Ashes. The ultimate prize in the Cricketing world, more coveted than the Border/Gavaskar Trophy, higher tension than the “Friendship Cup” of the 1990s; surely the pinnacle. So, what is the Australian Cricke team using as a practice of the, often brutal, English swinging conditions? By playing a 50 Over Tournament of course! Sure some of the boys are touring with the Australia A Squad, but really this is far from good enough. We should be getting our less experienced players used to English conditions by playing as close to Test Match Cricket as possible and the Champions Trophy is not that.
Anyway, before I go on, I'm going to list our 16 Man Squad and my believed 12 man playing squad for the first test:
- Michael Clarke (C)
- Brad Haddin (VC) (WK)
- David Warner
- Jackson Bird
- Ed Cowan
- James Faulkner
- Ryan Harris
- Phil Hughes
- Usman Khawaja
- Nathan Lyon
- James Pattinson
- Chris Rogers
- Peter Siddle
- Mitchell Starc
- Matthew Wade
- Shane Watson
- David Warner
- Ed Cowan
- Phil Hughes
- Shane Watson
- Michael Clarke (C)
- Brad Haddin (VC) (WK)
- ???
- Mitchell Starc/Ryan Harris
- James Pattinson
- Peter Siddle
- Nathan Lyon
- James Faulkner
So, in the probable 1st Test 12 Man Ashes Squad we've got a little bit of a hole don't we? Number 7 is completely bare and a rather curious conundrum due to the fact there is no one person who automatically slips into that role. I've placed Faulkner as 12th Man as I see simply no way of him being selected unless Watson isn't bowling, then he'd slip in nicely as the bowling allrounder; but even if Watson isn't bowling I don't see Cricket Australia including an international debutante in the First Ashes Test -- wont happen.
So, who then? Wade? His batting is certainly his strength but will Haddin replacing him as first choice keeper have dented Wade's confidence? Probably. Is Wade in electric form? Not really. Hmm. Rogers perhaps? Maybe. He is in incredible form at the moment and English conditions have become his forte, but he is an opener; just like: Watson, Cowan, Hughes and Warner. I'm just not sure how he would fit into the side. Khawaja? Even less likely than Faulkner in my opinion. He's out of form and I fear out of luck. Australian Cricket crucified him last summer as they destroyed Hughes confidence and thus his fledgling international career when it was merely beginning. A few bad performances, maybe a bit of bad luck and you're gone – this obliterates young cricketers confidence which in turn affects their form which prohibits them from getting another call up.
We should be nurturing our young talents, if we had of continued with Hughes during the last English Based Ashes tour, we may not have had as many ups and downs with him as we have done over the past few years. (Remember those “The Next Bradman!” headlines? I certainly do.) Hughes deserved the entire Ashes tour to turn it around, especially since he had been averaging over 100 in First Class Cricket in England prior to that Ashes tour; 4 bad and unlucky dismissals later and he was gone – banished to the cricketing wilderness.
Sorry, where was I? Oh yes, number 7. Personally, I think they'll bring in a fourth quick (Harris or Starc whoever wasn't chosen first) and be slightly bottom heavy. Which is dangerous, considering the ominous form of Broad and Anderson. So, the game plan will be to bowl them out with a sub-par score and then to bat as well as we possibly can. I don't honestly think we can win the first test and a draw is even less likely considering English Conditions and the lovely Duke ball. So a first test loss is probable.
Thus the second test becomes extremely important and many changes will be made: Whoever fails worse out of Hughes and Cowan will be dropped for Rogers, the bowler out of Starc and Harris with the least helpful figures will be dropped for Bird who is regarded as the bowler with the best technique for the English conditions and lastly, if our batting failed dismally we will drop another fast bowler for Faulker who is a handy bat and a deadly bowler in the right conditions.
That is a better side, without a doubt. At what cost though? Either Hughes or Cowan are thrown to the dogs then Harris and Starc are both equally in trouble for a second test berth and thus they will be weighed down by that decisions for quite some time to come. In fact, if Harris is dropped I predict his retirement. I said it first right here on The Opine Observer. Fact of the matter though, is that this line of thinking simply is not forward thinking enough and not acceptable.
The 12 man Squad that should be playing (with future in mind) is this:
- Hughes
- Warner (VC)
- Khawaja
- Clarke (C)
- Faulkner
- Smith
- Wade (WK)
- Pattinson
- Siddle
- Bird
- Lyon
- Doolan
This side would surely lose a lot at first, but we need to be looking towards the future. The current squad has way too many players on the wrong side of 30 and that is the absolute best we've got. We've made the mistake of focusing on short term winning before, then when the better half of the team retired after the 5-0 Whitewash of England in Australia we were absolutely screwed. In fact, we are only just rebuilding the side to an acceptable level now. So, when all else is lost, the future is still ours. If we went with the young squad we could cement our future, but we wont because all we want is short term return from our cricketers. So we have: Rogers, Harris and Haddin all playing for Australia when they should be winding down their careers.
Well that was a long one wasn't it? Hopefully someone will heed my advice, they wont, but one can hope.
~The Opine Observer
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