The West Indies tour of Australia
The West Indies tour of Australia may not be as exciting as Ashes(that's not saying much, is it :-) or even the England tour of Pakistan....but still it may not be another steam-rolling assignment for Australia as it used to be.
The reason for my 'optimism'? Well...WI has had pretty good batsmen for a while...and now, to me, their bowling lineup also looks exciting, going by their last few series performances. Powell and Bravo did well in the tour match against Queensland which had Hayden, Love, Symond, Maher, Watson in the lineup. And they have Lawson waiting in the wings. So...an attack low in experience, but quite high in sheer pace, talent and capability to rattle the batsmen.
Another reason being that Aus batting, despite their show of recovery in the Super Test, is still looking a bit shaky...and the new strategy of playing Watson instead of a specialist batsman has also weakened the lineup. Speaking of which, Aus have almost finalised their playing XI by declaring Bracken as the twelth man instead of Hodge. It would be a toss-up between McGill and Bracken for the final spot..and IMO its gonna be McGill since its highly unlikely of Aus to play five bowlers(including Watson) with 4 seamers.
Ofcourse, we need to see how much, and how soon, can the West Indies players come together as a team after their despute settlement. And then, there's this minor matter of the form of this gentleman called Lara :-)
The reason for my 'optimism'? Well...WI has had pretty good batsmen for a while...and now, to me, their bowling lineup also looks exciting, going by their last few series performances. Powell and Bravo did well in the tour match against Queensland which had Hayden, Love, Symond, Maher, Watson in the lineup. And they have Lawson waiting in the wings. So...an attack low in experience, but quite high in sheer pace, talent and capability to rattle the batsmen.
Another reason being that Aus batting, despite their show of recovery in the Super Test, is still looking a bit shaky...and the new strategy of playing Watson instead of a specialist batsman has also weakened the lineup. Speaking of which, Aus have almost finalised their playing XI by declaring Bracken as the twelth man instead of Hodge. It would be a toss-up between McGill and Bracken for the final spot..and IMO its gonna be McGill since its highly unlikely of Aus to play five bowlers(including Watson) with 4 seamers.
Ofcourse, we need to see how much, and how soon, can the West Indies players come together as a team after their despute settlement. And then, there's this minor matter of the form of this gentleman called Lara :-)
posted by worma at
7:10 AM
33 Comments:
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By
Toney, at 10:07
What WI needed is something India lacks too, I feel. Their quickies are true in the literal sense but they dont have some senior bowler to shepherd them. A Walsh would have been very handy. As far as batting is concerned, I cant understand why they cannot be as good as India. Sarwan, Lara, Chanderpaul, Gayle - man for man, they are very good. And then there is Samuels who impress on the last Aussie tour. This could be more interesting than the Pak-Eng series for me. Unless of course, we have more revelations to the press from Collingwood (he did a McG by saying Eng might even win 3-0)
By
Toney, at 10:08
Meant their quickies are really sharp (and not the 130-135kph bowlers)
By
Toney, at 10:09
toney: agree that they dont have the guiding force(infact even in batting). I think Dhillon was the in-between force to link the two generations...but he couldnt step up that final step...but thats why WI is not as good as it can be...if you just count the talent.
but anyways...exciting series ahead. I am sure Aus lineup would collapse atleast once(even more?). Its upto WI batsmen to make good use of it.
mayur...yes Hayden still looks to be struggling...even in Super Series it wasnt as if he was back to old days(which i think are never going to return for him). About Lawson...yep lets see if he is called again. But I am not sure if WI have the 'momentum' yet...lets see how their batsmen fare
By
worma, at 10:15
mayur - I think Love falls into that "lost" generation of Aussie batsmen who are in their 30's who never got in because of the strong batting lineup over the past decade. The list alos includes Elliot, Law, Maher etc.
About the Qld/WI match. I love to see Matty H get a duck. I generally don't mind the Aussies but this guy gets on my nerves.
The series may be interesting but I feel the WI batsmen will not be up to it. It will be upto Lara and Shiv to make big knocks to make the series interesting. You can never tell with Lara. He may be in scintillating form as he was vs Pak earlier this year or he may take the series off mentally. Although he rarely does that in Aus.
By
Gopal Bhagavatula, at 10:25
gopal...yep...its ironic that Aus developed and maintained a good bench strength (with Love, Maher etc) for a long time, and then had to dump them directly from the bench
By
worma, at 10:33
I read Powell went off claiming hip soreness after taking 4 of the first 5 Qld wickets. That's not a good sign for the Windies.
The Aussie team selection for the tests is bizarre to me. They dropped Martyn from the test team where he was doing pretty well (even in the Ashes before a couple of dodgy decisions did him in). And now it seems essentially Shane Watson is replacing him. That is nuts, I think. The Aussie batting is fragile with this move IMO. Clarke is looking shaky and Watson is not test level as a batsman.
On Clarke, it is interesting to read the Aussie press going after him after his dismal performance in the Super Test. I think the press is rightly pointing out that the future star and supposedly future captain is looking shaky as a batsman. Watching the Super Series he got out shockingly in the second innings esp and looked not entirely comfortable to the quicker bowlers.
By
Gopal Bhagavatula, at 10:35
inoc...as I understand it, I dont think anyone here is saying that WI have the edge over Aus. Its just that WI has its chances...because of potential of their team (which has been showing in terms of individual and sometimes team results in recent times) and also because of the chinks which have opened up in Aus armour since the Ashes, and which are not yet fully mended.
By
worma, at 10:35
gopal: yes I've expressed my surprise/shock/dismay about Martyn many times here :-)...and esp beause it finally looks like he was the *only* casualty of Ashes. I have no doubt that very soon Australia will loose a match because of their weakened batting...and that would directly mean they did wrong in sacking Martyn(whether they accept it or not). I mean..even in Super Series they came close to it.
And yes, its odd that they are literally trying to 'invent' an allrounder out of Watson. Doesnt look test match material to me either...but havent seen too much of him, so maybe hold my decision.
Clarke will be ok...that kind of pressure is normal on an Aus batsman in his position(was on Waugh, Martyn). He recently scored 178 in his last match against..umm..dont remember
By
worma, at 10:40
i dont really care how the west indies fare in australia - all i care about is that i should get to see another epic battle between mcgrath, lee and warne on one hand and lara alone on the other - boy is that a mouth-watering prospect !!
By
Gaurav, at 10:40
@worma
i think u r being too harsh on watson - i see something there that can be developed with proper care in due course
and u r being too lenient on clarke - quite simply he has problems with the incoming ball
By
Gaurav, at 10:42
@mayur
yes ... on that 2003-04 tour most of our players consistenly performed way above their potential ... almost 200% ... that is very rare indeed and i dont see it happening now with the west indies ... of course one can never say never with lara around
By
Gaurav, at 10:50
worma - Yeah Martyn is an interesting case. The Laxman of the Aussie team? Interesting note about Martyn I was reading Peter Roebuck's autobiography. The most interesting part of it was the last chapter on the current Aussie cricket setup. In it he talks of how he saw Martyn when DM was one of the first recruits into the then new cricket academy and while he was clearly the most talented of the young batsmen he was a lazy cricketer and if he had a higher level of application to combine with his talent he would have been the Aussie captain instead of Ricky.
I saw Clarke get a good score in the State cricket and he responded to the critics by saying essentially - yeah tell me what I'm doing wrong and I'll fix it.
Note that all the Aussies were playing state cricket during the lull in int'l schedule. It disappointed me that Laxman dropped out of the Duleep Trophy match. All the Indian test and ODI players should be encouraged to play local cricket when they aren't playing int'l matches.
By
Gopal Bhagavatula, at 10:50
gk..yes I haven't seen enough of Watson...so would still wait before judging him finally.
Clarke...I've seen enough to feel that he's doing fine....and doesnt have too many problems...except maybe playing a lot of shots (something like Ponting in his prime). Technically he looks very balanced to me.
By
worma, at 10:51
I think the problem with the West Indies is their knack for getting bundled out for very low scores in the THIRD innings of the Test.
In fact, in the last 20 tests, they average better in the fourth innings of a Test (30.55 per wicket) then the 3rd (22.05).
Their average in the first/second innings of a test is pretty impressive at 410 runs.
By
Saurabh Wahi, at 10:51
@worma
did u c the ashes ? he clearly has a problem getting out lbw or bowled thru the legs to the incoming ball. also he has very frequent lapses of concentration and is EXTREMELY likely to get out 10 minutes before an interval in play - i ve seen that happen 4 or 5 times in his last 8-10 inns
By
Gaurav, at 10:53
mayur - It is a luxury I guess the Aussies had over the past decade that guys of such talent could be left out, maybe given a few chances and excluded when they didn't perform.
By
Gopal Bhagavatula, at 10:54
@mayur
yes they have a fair lineup - but is does not read sehwag, dravid, sachin, laxman does it ??
By
Gaurav, at 10:54
gk & worma - Clarke's problem with the incoming ball could be seen clearly in the 2nd innings of the super test vs Harmison. It was a shocking dismissal for someone who was raised on fast bowling as he must have been.
By
Gopal Bhagavatula, at 10:56
even if the west indies play above their potential sarwan, gayle, shiv and the young fast bowlers they will only be able to stretch australia - if it is to be an upset it is going to boil down to 1 man and we know who he is
By
Gaurav, at 10:56
gk..I thought in Eng he was done in by late swing (which was problem for all their batsmen). But if you say so...I'll watch more carefully for it :-)
btw..about stretching Aus..well as I said...I feel Aus will atleast have one batting collapse....and now its upto WI batsmen to grab that one chance to put up a decent score...
By
worma, at 10:59
@sahir
bravo must play - he is an allrounder and his bowling will be taken as a bonus - i think he will bat at 6
for edwards, lawson etc they have the potential but have not delivered for too long - plus they are very injury-prone and hence im not sure about how effective they will be
By
Gaurav, at 11:01
worma, guess you haven't seen Clarke play of late.
I agree with GK. The guy has a problem if he is not allowed to come on the front foot, and I think the good bowlers have figured that out. In fact, if you take away his first Test Innings, he
He average has dropped to 38 and if you take his first innings out, its a pathetic 34!!!
By
Saurabh Wahi, at 11:01
sahir...adding to your assessment...this practise match against Queensland may have sealed it in favour of Powell?
By
worma, at 11:01
saurabh...I saw him atleast couple of innings in Ashes...looked pretty composed to me...even on backfoot. Ofcourse he is predominantly a front foot player...that i agree. But will watch more carefully about this incoming delivery problem
By
worma, at 11:07
@all
how much of this talk about there being great harmony and problems being solved is genuine ? After all there will be some pretty strong egos out there - we all know lara refused to carry the west indies flag and refused to represent them at the captains conference in australia despite the board requesting him
By
Gaurav, at 11:07
worma, 40% of his dismissals are lbw's & bowled, which is very high for a batsmen.
By
Saurabh Wahi, at 11:09
@alvin
why on earth talk about this topic here ?
By
Gaurav, at 11:15
well said alvin...
By
Saurabh Wahi, at 11:17
@dark nights
i do think martyn was extremely unlucky. he got a couple of shocking decisions in the ashes and prior to that he had been absolutely magnificent in India and SL
As far BCL, a couple of 170s from him will make my winter - of course chances are west indies will still lose those matches even if he scores 170+
By
Gaurav, at 11:19
dark nights: I never made any predicitons....just said that WI can give a decent fight...if they can 'time' their batting to click when the Aus batting failes (which, I sort of predict, will do atleast once)
saurabh: I know his avg has dropped dramatically this year...but he did score a century in his last series before Eng(that was Nz series...didnt he?)..and anyway 38, 34 are not bad numbers for a youngster into his second season...are they? Out of this great Aussie lineup after Ponting he looked, to me, the most energetic and capable batsman against 'good' bowling. But will watch out if his incoming delivery problem is against top quality late swing (Eng) bowlers...or generic in nature.
sahir: cant say about the injury....maybe he pulled out as a precaution. Lets see.
By
worma, at 12:16
dark nights...Martyn was excellent in SL also...and in Nz also....I think he was arguably their best batsman last year...if his career ends this way....for me this is the biggest selectorial blunder in a long long time...and ironically it comes from Aus selectors :-)
By
worma, at 12:18
I really hope Australia come to regret their decision to drop Martyn...poor guy was made a scape-goat.
WI I agree have the potential to surprise Aus and give them a good fight but they have to play as a team. Bowling looks strongest since the retirement of Walsh & Ambrose...but the bowlers have to maintain the pressure.
Even against Queensland they let them get away after knocking down 5 wickets for 100 something. Ofcourse batting for the talent they have at their disposal should be doing a lot more...I'm positive Lara will click - he seemed like regaining his touch in the last innings of the Super Test. He has been in ominous form this year just short of match practise.
This is my line-up for the 1st Test
Gayle.
Smith.
Sarwan.
Lara.
Chanderpaul.
Samuels.
Bravo.
Ramdin.
Lawson.
Edwards.
Collymore.
Picking Bravo because he is useful medium pacer with batting ability and fantastic fielder.
By
ClannZú, at 12:52
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