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Tag: opening batsman

  • Australia’s woes deepen ahead of ODI World Cup

    Australia’s woes deepen ahead of ODI World Cup

    India cruised to a comfortable victory in the first of the three-match series on Friday night in Mohali, but it wasn’t the result that mattered, more the distinct lack of cohesion in almost every facet of Australia’s game.

    Captain Pat Cummins and Steve Smith made solid returns from injury but the skipper revealed the other two key pillars in the side Maxwell and Starc aren’t due to come back until the third ODI against India next Wednesday, leaving precious little time for continuity to build ahead of Australia’s blockbuster World Cup opener facing the formidable hosts once again on October 8.

    If anything, the five-wicket loss in Mohali may further strengthen Australia’s resolve to carry Travis Head through the first half of the World Cup despite his fractured hand, in the hope he can win them the tournament at the back end.

    India’s openers Shubman Gill (74 off 63) and Ruturaj Gaikwad (71 off 77) showed the vital importance of getting off to a flying start in Indian conditions, and Australia believe Head can provide that injection when he ultimately returns to partner the in-form David Warner (52), the only Aussie to pass 50.

    Josh Inglis’ (45 off 45 balls) in the middle order was also timely as Australia contemplate how they plug a hole without Head for the first half of the tournament, especially if they are to decide against calling Marnus Labuschagne (39 off 49) into the final 15-man World Cup squad.

    It might be too late in the piece for selectors to consider another switcheroo, but Cameron Green looks out of rhythm as a middle order batsman in India after a stodgy 31 off 52 balls.

    In his first ever Indian Premier League appearance earlier this year, Green lit it up as an opening batsman for the Mumbai Indians, as he did late last year when Australia shifted him to the top of the order for a series of T20s in India on the eve of the T20 World Cup.

    Green struggles starting his innings against spin and Australia might ponder whether – in Head’s absence – they might get the best out of him by promoting him to open with Warner and giving him a licence to play his shots.

    That would allow Australia to return to its original plan and bat Mitchell Marsh at No. 3 and Smith at No.4.

    It would enable Australia to go hard with its top three and push for a big start to the innings, and then have the option of pulling the handbrake with Smith at 4 and possibly Inglis at 5 should early wickets fall.

    Green told this masthead before the start of Australia’s ODI campaign that the IPL experience opening the batting had changed him as a cricketer.

    “100 per cent, I took a lot of confidence out of that,” Green said.

    “You’re obviously coming up against the best players in the world in pretty foreign conditions. I had a great time. I felt like I was a different cricketer to when I finished that, from where I was before.

    “I had a lot more confidence in my own game and what I can bring.

    “I think that’s the benefit of our Australian team, everyone has had success in the IPL and had plenty of years there.

    “We have a really good idea how to go about it in India and they have great plans for how to succeed there.”

    Meanwhile, Green has formally knocked back an approach from the Brisbane Heat to jump the fence to play for them this year, but is still yet to put pen to paper with the Perth Scorchers.

    Australia’s other big issue ahead of the World Cup is taking wickets, with leg-spinner Adam Zampa about the only likely option at the moment.

    World Cup master Starc (groin) and finger spin all-rounder Maxwell (ankle) will be absolutely vital to Australia’s hopes and selectors will be sweating on how they respond in their comeback from fitness issues.

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  • Crash Craddock Q&A: Leave your questions now

    Crash Craddock Q&A: Leave your questions now

    Ben Stokes isn’t backing away from his day one declaration. Was it the right call? Join Crash Craddock for a live Ashes Q&A. Leave your questions now.

    Did Australia just pull off its greatest Ashes victory of all-time?

    Where does the Bazball phenomenon go now?

    Was Ben Stokes’ decision to declare on day one a mistake?

    Now is your chance to fire all your Ashes cricket questions at one of the best and most experienced minds in the game.

    Renowned cricket journalist Robert Craddock will be answering all your Ashes questions from 12pm AEST.

    Leave your questions in the Q&A tool and Crash will tackle the best of them.

    The Bazball weakness that could cost England the Ashes

    – Robert Craddock

    A majestic first Test has proved that Bazball is a peerless way to entertain fans but, in its ever so subtle way, Uzzball is the best route to the Ashes.

    Hats off to England for the life they have breathed in the game, but the loss of this Test will rock them to the core.

    English headlines like “A real kick in the Bazzballs’’ may be raising grins this morning but there is also an underlying truth that England has been kicked where it hurts most.

    If England keep losing this summer the joy of this side’s fabulous freedom of expression will be replaced by a more intense scrutiny of their cavalier methods. There’s only one thing English fans love more than entertainment – winning.

    Make no mistake, Australia will be a better side for this win.

    As you read this story somewhere in Birmingham Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith will surely be playing mini-practice shots in their hotel rooms, craving to make an imprint next Test after failing in the opener.

    England, however, limp away with limited options and major selection issues everywhere, from injured spinner Moeen Ali to error-prone keeper Jonny Bairstow and whether veteran swing maestro Jimmy Anderson has reached the end of the line sooner than expected.

    Bazzball has been wonderful for the game but for all the razzle and dazzle on display in England’s second innings, no batsman made 50 on a flat deck. They are not unlucky losers.

    In a near anonymous hour before Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon magnificently stole the show, Usman Khawaja spotlighted the fact that his flexible batting mantra – let’s call it Uzzball – has the one precious gear Bazball is missing.

    Not fourth or fifth gear where wheels screech, crowds roar and commentators gasp, but the gear which decides the fate of so many Test matches … first.

    Khawaja’s recent form surge, including his two epic Edgbaston innings, has him on the verge of becoming a great of the Australian game – an astonishing achievement given he has been dropped from the team seven times.

    The veteran was under fire in the fire hour of the last day when he scored five runs off 41 balls and Australia looked to be going nowhere.

    Bazball would never have allowed such a dawdle, but Khawaja’s strength of mind and soundness of defensive technique won Australia a Test, and quite possibly the Ashes.

    For all that Khawaja has achieved in his stunning comeback to the five-day game, this was one of his finest hours as a Test batsman where he shut out all the temptations to snatch at the match or challenge England at their own cavalier game.

    Amazingly, the only time Australia seemed genuinely in front in the game was the last ball of the match.

    Australia will be better for this win because there were times when they seemed a bit disorientated by what was happening around them.

    Statistician Ric Finlay spotted the difference between the two teams, who both lost 18 wickets for the Test.

    Australia scored 668 runs to England’s 666 but Australia faced a staggering 384 more balls for roughly the same amount of runs.

    Remarkably, Australia hit one more four (68 to 67) and four more sixes (11 to 7), which means that for all the huffing and puffing associated with Bazball, one of its underrated features is batsmen rotating the strike.

    The only predictable thing about this series is its unpredictability. A great English summer awaits us.

    Stokes defends costly gamble

    – Daniel Cherny

    Ben Stokes has defended his decision to declare before stumps on day one after England let the first Test slip from an impregnable position.

    Australia’s two-wicket win came on the back of heroics from Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon, who put on an unbeaten 55 for the ninth wicket, but the Aussies may have run out of time had Stokes not ended England’s innings at 8-393 late on the opening day in a bid to make early inroads into Australia’s top order.

    Joe Root was 118 not out and smoking them when Stokes called time on the innings, following a pattern under England’s Bazball approach.

    Aussie openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja survived those early salvos and while their side slumped to 3-67 the following day, Australia recovered to make 386 in its first innings.

    As it turned out, the tourists won the match well past 7pm on the final day and inside the last five overs.

    Yet Stokes suggested he had no regrets over his decision to call time on the innings.

    “I‘m a captain and a person who has seen that as an opportunity to pounce on Australia,” he said.

    “You know, no opening batsman likes to go out for 20 minutes before the close of play and the way in which we played and took Australia on actually allowed us to be able to do that.

    “And, you know, I could also turn around and say, ‘if we didn‘t declare would we have got that excitement that we did at the end of day five?’

    “I‘m not 100 per cent sure. But, you know, I’m not going to be looking back on this game as you know ‘what ifs.’ There’s so many things that happened throughout the five days, which we could look back on and say if that went our way, could this game have been different? But the reality is that, you know, we just didn’t manage to get over the line this week.”

    Stokes said that no one factor had cost England the game, but paid credit to Lyon and Cummins.

    “You play cricket over five days, there‘s so many things that goes on that you could look back at, you know, sort of 20 individual moments which you could go like ‘if that happened, if that went our way, could this game have been different?’ But I don’t like to look at things like that. At the end of the day, the game went down to the wire and Australia managed to get over the line.”

    Cummins gets one back for ‘hurt’ of 2019

    Pat Cummins said the memories of Australia’s heartbreaking one-wicket defeat at Headingley four years earlier went through his mind as he and Nathan Lyon brought their side back from the brink at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

    The Australian skipper meanwhile spoke of how special it was to be able to share the stirring win with his father and brother after they lost their wife and mother Maria to cancer earlier this year.

    Cummins and Lyon combined for a stunning unbeaten 55-run ninth-wicket stand to wrest the first Test from England at 7:21pm on day five.

    It was Cummins who had delivered the ball that Ben Stokes hit for four to win the epic third Test in 2019 at Leeds for England by one wicket, and Lyon who had infamously fumbled in the dying stages of that match.

    That the pair were in the middle when Australia pulled off a similarly remarkable win was not lost on Cummins.

    “Yeah, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t (cross my mind),” Cummins said.

    “We’ve been on the other side of it last series, so I think just what a wonderful Test match, really hard fought and it’s one of those ones when you’re on the other side of it, really hurts, feels like one that got away so it’s a pretty happy dressing room in there at the moment to be 1-0 up in this series and a lot of those guys were there at Headingley.

    “So to feel like we clinched one, kind of that perhaps was out of our grasp there for a little while is pretty satisfying.”

    It has been a trying year personally for Cummins, who flew home midway through the tour of India to be with his mother before she died.

    Cummins’ father Peter was in the Australian rooms sharing in the celebrations on Tuesday night at Edgbaston. And as it turns out, that wasn’t the only special experience he had shared with his son during the week, with the pair attending a Bruce Springsteen concert at Birmingham’s Villa Park after play on day one.

    “Yeah, just really special. Dad’s been here all week. So I just feel really lucky to have him here. It‘s been a tough few months. My brother’s been here all week as well. Dad was here in 2019 with Mum, so just having him here is just really special. I went with him to Bruce Springsteen on the first night this week as well. So it’s been a good week, he’s pretty happy.”

    Robert CraddockSenior sports journalist

    Robert ‘Crash’ Craddock is regarded as one of Queensland’s best authorities on sport. ‘Crash’ is a senior sport journalist and columnist for The Courier-Mail and CODE Sports, and can be seen on Fox Cricket.

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