The split between Clarke and Aussie chiefs is a big problem Clarke and big problem
Ifeel for Michael Clarke right now. Captaincy can be tough, and so can slumps in your batting form. But when the two things coincide — when your team’s losing and you’re not scoring any runs — that’s when you really earn your crust. It’s both the toughest part of the job and a great opportunity to show people what you’re made of.
The first thing I’d say about Clarke is that he’s such a strong guy you expect him to bounce out of the rut. The way he dealt with the Phillip Hughes tragedy showed what kind of a leader he is.
I just wonder, though, how much support he’s getting from within the dressing room. I know it’s the Australian way sometimes to be at loggerheads: it’s often the way they get the best out of themselves, pushing each other to spur everyone on.
But the Brad Haddin situation — when he withdrew from the second Test for family reasons — has been an interesting one.
It’s no secret that Clarke is a big Haddin fan, and it’s clear that he doesn’t have the same say in selection now as he did before, especially when Mickey Arthur was coach. I wonder if that’s getting to him a bit.
I firmly believe the captain needs to have the final say on the XI who take the field. It’s fine for the selectors to pick the squad, but the captain is the guy who has to take them out there and juggle his stock.
He’s the one who visits the players late at night in their hotel rooms to see if they’re in the right frame of mind. He should be the one who makes the final call.
In terms of building the right environment around a team, I’d have wanted Haddin in my team at edgbaston. It strikes me that there’s a difference of philosophy between Clarke and those who run the team.
As for his lack of runs, he has to remember that he’s not become a bad player overnight.
After all, it wasn’t so long ago he was hitting 74 against us in the world Cup final. His skills haven’t deserted him — but, for the time being, his ability to access them have. england have bowled well to him, — especially Stuart Broad, who has been driving him on to the back foot. But it’s a mental thing as much as anything.
He just looks off the boil at the moment. when Clarke is playing well, he has a presence at the crease, and really gets into the ball. I’m not going to sit here and tell him how to play but he just doesn’t look himself. He just needs to hit a cover drive and all of a sudden he’ll be away again. It’s a bit like Ian Bell before the edgbaston Test. Clarke needs to remember the basics of watching the ball, and he needs to remind himself why he started playing cricket in the first place.
darren lehmann has mentioned the possibility of Clarke moving to No 5, and I’m aware of the stats — he averages twice as many there as he does at No 4.
But he’s at the stage of his career where a move like that is irrelevant. He’s been around for long enough to deal with whichever position he’s in.
You also have to be sure when you make a change that whoever comes in instead is better equipped to score runs.
I don’t see many better middle order batsmen in the Australian team than Michael Clarke. STROKES OF GENIUS FROM ENGLAND Now that Jimmy Anderson is out of the Trent Bridge Test, england’s selection policy is looking very smart indeed. Steven finn is suddenly on a roll and has regained the trust of his captain, while Mark wood can come back refreshed after missing edgbaston. Both guys are really dangerous bowlers.
I know Anderson and finn took the wickets in Birmingham but I also think Stuart Broad has been bowling beautifully. He’s built up the pressure and seems to have taken his game to the next level.
And it’s been a stroke of genius having Moeen Ali at No 8. He’s been a revelation and he’s bowled reasonably well too. He’s such a dangerous player and if he can get a partnership going with Ben Stokes or Jos Buttler they can take the game away from you in an hour or two.
DON’T PANIC
I Wouldn’t be worried that Stokes and Buttler have had a quiet time of it. Stokes is one of those guys who, if he makes an impact, ends up being man of the match. There’ll be quiet times but I wouldn’t be surprised if he has some say in the outcome of one of the last two Tests.
Buttler’s been keeping really well and I just think he needs to remind himself what his natural game is with the bat. He’s such a talented player but perhaps he’s trying too hard to do well. Sometimes that can mean you end up suppressing your natural talent.
People have also spoken about Adam lyth, who got a very good hundred against us at Headingley. obviously he’ll be judged on the number of runs he scores but he’s one of those guys whose importance to the team goes beyond stats.
You only have to see how he is in the field and the way he’ll be sitting with the next guy in only moments after getting out himself. Sometimes the public don’t see that side of a player’s contribution. I hope england persist with him.
AND FINALLY . . .
A word for Ian Bell. He looked like a man who had rediscovered the joys of cricket. I even quite liked his first-innings dismissal when he tried to attack Nathan lyon because he was being true to the way he wanted to play. And the way he came out in the second innings and took charge of the run chase.
It’s great when good guys do well, and Ian Bell can be anything he wants to be in the next couple of years. I’m absolutely delighted for him.
Voges) out the same way, and Clarke as well. he bowled a spell at (Peter) nevill when he played and missed about four on the trot!
‘In the last few months he’s developed the confidence to hold the ball seam-up and get it shaping away from the righthander. he’s been able to do that for a while but not had the confidence to try it. Bowling a ball he hasn’t bowled before in a Test in his first game back . . . that took a hell of a lot of guts.’
The contrast between the third Test man of the match and the erratic bowler hurling waist-high full tosses into an empty net in Australia was startling.
But the confidence which Johnson highlights hit a low last year when, at the ground where his Test career was reborn, Finn was reduced to tears in a county match against Warwickshire.
‘It was very hard for him,’ Johnson reveals. ‘he was very, very low. he felt he’d let everyone down.
‘I’ve been there before: you run in and you’re a shadow of what you were. You still have an inner belief that you can get back, but you don’t know how. It’s a horrible feeling. You’re suddenly bowling at people who you’ve been all over and got out easily, and you can’t bowl at them — they’re hitting you everywhere and it feels terrible.
‘ Young sportsmen just do what comes naturally and they don’t really think about it.
‘They don’t know why they’re doing it or how they’re doing it, and I think he was definitely one of those guys who just ran in, bowled quickly and took wickets.
‘But along the way, you tend to develop some bad habits, and I think he didn’t understand how to iron out those bad habits. he’d often jump in too close to the stumps and knock the bails off, then he would run in wider and wider to compensate for it. When you’re in the spotlight all the time and you’re with england on tour, the problems can get bigger and bigger until you crash.’
After Finn was described as ‘not selectable’ by then limited- overs coach Ashley Giles, Johnson and Middlesex director of cricket Angus Fraser put a plan in place to build him back up — covering everything from his action to the run-up he previously described as ‘ just legging it to the crease’.
‘We had a clip of him from when he felt he was at his best (playing for england Lions against Pakistan A in 2010), and we worked from that,’ Johnson adds. ‘We looked at his positions, where he was on the crease, the angles he was coming in at, what his arms were doing and so on.
‘When we thought we got his technique back to where it was, we still felt his run-up wasn’t quite free-flowing. So we used Raph Brandon, who used to be Christine Ohuruogu’s running coach, to work with him on his run-up.
‘now you can see he runs in at a slight angle, but he doesn’t jump in so close to the stumps now. he’s more mid-crease.’
Johnson felt that, with that final hurdle cleared, Finn was ready for a Test recall at the start of the season. So can Finn build on his edgbaston heroics and become a more constant wicket threat for england?
‘Yes, he can. he’s got an incredible strike rate but he goes for a few runs,’ Johnson admits. ‘But his accuracy has improved and I think he’ll be able to sustain that over a long period of time. not only will he take wickets, he will go for fewer runs.
‘At his previous best, he was the fastest to 50 wickets in an england shirt . . . there’s no reason why he can’t become a leading wicket-taker for england.
‘If someone at 6ft 7in is bowling 90mph with a bit of away-shape, that’s exceptional. And personally, I think that’s made him as good as there is.’