Australia need settled side for Ashes chance...
Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting on what’s going wrong Down Under
While England are battling hard in India, archrivals Australia are capitulating on a regular basis.
First it was in Sri Lanka, whitewashed in the Test series. It was a similar story when Australia toured South Africa for five ODIs – the Proteas won all five.
Now, on their home turf, Australia are crumbling again. Collapses reminiscent of past England teams are seemingly commonplace with the current Australia team.
But BT Sport cricket expert Ricky Ponting, who won 48 of his 77 Tests as skipper, still backs current captain Steve Smith, while looking ahead to next winter’s Ashes. Australia have been poor for the last five Tests. They had Sri Lanka 87-7 in the first Test against them and managed to lose that game, and lost that series 3-0 in conditions that we continue to struggle in. There’s a tour coming up to India in February and you can guarantee the conditions will be very similar there, too.
They would have been disappointed with being bowled out for 85 against South Africa, and ultimately going on to lose the second Test, but I think they would have been more disappointed at the opportunity they missed in Perth. They were exactly where they wanted to be, and then an hour and a half later, the game was gone again.
Steve Smith didn’t lose any of his first 11 Tests as captain but five defeats on the bounce is pretty much unheard of as Australia captain. It’s a tricky one with captains because we all know they are wholly and solely responsible for results. Unfortunately you’re not wholly and solely accountable though because you don’t have full control on everything that happens around you in the game.
That’s why I pressed so long for the captain to be a selector. The finger is always pointed at the captain so it can seem a bit unfair. I have no doubt that Steve Smith is the right man for the job; he just needs to find a way to get the best out of his players.
He’s used 23 players in 16 Test matches whereas I had 45 in 77 games. The captaincy does wear you down, too.You want to maintain your own game but when you’re captain of your country, you have to find a way to reinvent yourself every series to keep things fresh.
They’re throwing things around and trying to find the right combination. If the Ashes is the biggest series, then let’s pick some guys now and get them ready for that series. There might be some pain along the way but that’s happening at the moment anyway. England’s team is currently a lot more settled than the Australian team.There’s 12 months until the next series, though.
For England, it seems like Alastair Cook is breaking records every other week – they’re tumbling all the time. For an opening batsman to be averaging 47 is outstanding. His record stacks up as well as anyone’s and to be captain alongside is remarkable. I’m slightly surprised to hear him say he’s contemplating stepping down as captain so it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months.
Down Under, Darren Lehmann has recently been reappointed until 2019 but the Australian coach can’t teach technique. By the time players are there, it’s too late. Coaching is around the wrong way. The best coaches are looking after the national team when they should be teaching the kids and ironing out any flaws in the game.
If you look through the past greats of the game, in Australia and England, how many are back in the game and coaching? They’re not, they’re all sitting behind the microphone commentating because they get paid more and it’s less intrusive time wise.You have to find a way to get the right people in the right roles.
In terms of Lehmann, he’s all about improvement. Before the Sri Lanka series, Australia were No1 in the world in Tests and ODIs, so they’d obviously done things right for a long time before the series. It’s down to the players to not stand for what’s going on and not be happy with mediocre performances.You can’t tell me Dean Elgar (South Africa) is better technically than Usman Khawaja (Australia), but South Africa have got the job done when they’ve had to.
There’s talk about doctoring pitches but the whole time I’ve been involved with cricket in Australia, I’ve never known an Australian captain or administrator to talk to a curator at home and ask for a certain wicket. This series is a great example – you wouldn’t play South Africa in Perth because they have a great record there, then we go to Hobart and they produce a green wicket. But they’ve both been very good cricket pitches, and we’ve seen results and great battles between bat and ball.
It’s good Test cricket and I’m for anything that will make the Test game better and more attractive but I don’t see how a Test Championship does that. You have a No1 ranked team at the end of the year anyway and it risks alienating the second tier. The conference idea (two divisions) has more merit, but there are a lot of hurdles that would need to be overcome.
I’m more interested in talking to the everyday punter in what he wants to see from Test cricket. Do they want to see 450-3 after day one or a contest between bat and ball? I’m not sure that question has been asked enough.
Test cricket in Australia and England is still strong but it’s dropping off in most other areas. That’s why I can’t get my head around the two-tier idea. If they’re not going to watch West Indies v Australia in the Caribbean, they’re certainly not going to watch West Indies v Bangladesh.”