SMITH’S AUSTRALIA ARE NOT A FINISHED PRODUCT JUST YET CRICKET
The Ashes series win shows they have ingredients to be great but also have kinks to iron out
At some point on Monday morning, UAE time, England’s misery in the 2017/18 Ashes series likely will come to an end as Australia wrap up victory in the fifth Test at Sydney.
It will give Steve Smith’s men a 4-0 victory in the five-match series and is likely to spark joyous scenes in the Australia dressing room as they celebrate regaining the Ashes.
With five one-day internationals against England and a Twenty20 series with England and New Zealand still to come, the attention in Australian cricket will remain on the home front in the coming weeks.
Smith and his Test squad do not have long to wait for the next immediate challenge with a four-Test series spread across March.
You would not blame them, having comprehensively routed England, for being full of confidence for taking on the Proteas.
But there are areas of their play that still need work, and even former Test batsman Ed Cowan added a note of caution during yesterday’s fourth day’s play.
Cowan, who played 18 Tests for Australia between 2011 and 2013, told the BBC’s Test Match Special: “This series is giving a false sense of how strong Australian cricket is.
“We’ve had our struggles away from home.”
That might be a little unfair on Australia overall, but Cowan does have a point that judgement should probably be reserved on just how good their Test side are at present until after they have toured South Africa.
You can only beat what is in front of you and Australia have done that well against England.
But this will not go down as a well-remembered England side with a bowling attack that struggled to threaten in Australian conditions and a batting line-up that proved, Melbourne apart, brittle on a regular basis.
The series has been highlighted by the excellent batting of Smith, who struck three hundreds, the one in Perth a double, and scored 687 runs in total at an average of 137.40.
But what is forgotten is that the century in Brisbane and the 239 in Perth became rescue operations with England in a good position when he came to the crease, and the hundred in Melbourne earned Australia a draw.
England did not put Australia under consistent pressure in the series largely because they were not good enough. But the few times they did they enjoyed success.
Australia have issues at opener with Cameron Bancroft struggling. He averaged only 25 and made just one fifty. The middle order had looked an issue before the series but the two hundreds scored each by the Marsh brothers, Shaun and Mitchell, does appear to have answered that problem for now.
The jury remains out on whether the pair are capable of scoring runs consistently, given their ordinary performances in the past. South Africa and the ominous threat of Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Dale Steyn, if fit, will be a much bigger test to the Australia top six.
Tim Paine has proven a solid hand behind the stumps, but the 33-year-old wicketkeeper still appears to be a shortterm option until a younger talent comes through. Australia’s bowling was superb throughout the series.
Pace trio Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood all weighed in with wickets, and Nathan Lyon’s spin was not only a threat but also slowed England’s scoring.
But the absence of Starc through injury in Melbourne was a reminder that depth is a concern, with Jackson Bird a poor replacement.
There is work still to be done but this has the potential to be a great Australia side.
They have a fine bowling attack and have in Smith a player who, if he keeps up his form, will go down as one of the all-time greats in the game. But England did cause them problems at times and they would be ill-advised to ignore that.
England were 3-0 winners over Australia in the 2013 Ashes series in England, but the scoreline flattered them in a series that was closely fought.
The tourists, though, ignored the weaknesses in their side, and when they went to Australia a few months later for the return series were trounced 5-0.
Now this is not to say anything like that will happen to Australia in South Africa and they are a better side then that England 2013 outfit.
But they should not allow a likely 4-0 winning margin of the work that they still need to do to become great.