Australia will be heading to the subcontinent aiming to win their 4th successive World Cup. They have not lost a game in the previous two editions of the tournament and they are currently leading England 3-0 in their one-day series. All of this should point to another comprehensive World Cup triumph for the mighty Australians. It should, but it doesn’t. For the Australians are mighty no more. It is four years since their previous World Cup triumph and since then they have lost many key players. Most notably Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist, who both starred in the 2007 event. Their current 3-0 series lead against England has been fortunate to say the least, their wins have been solely based on a couple of outstanding individual performances and some implosions from England’s batting unit.
For the first time in recent memory, Australia will not be heading to the World Cup as favourites. Far from it. You could argue that India, South Africa, Sri Lanka and even England have better chances going into the tournament. After Australia’s Ashes embarrassment there has been much speculation about the competence of the selectors, coaching staff and of course, the players. The selection of the World Cup touring party will have laid none of that to rest.
The buzzword hovering over Australia’s squad is risk, and quite rightly so. Australia have selected many players who are currently injured, including captain Ricky Ponting, Mike Hussey, Nathan Hauritz and Shaun Tait. Australia’s selectors will be praying that Ponting and Hussey in particular will recover in time.
Some of the selections the selectors made have been bizarre. Nathan Hauritz was selected as the sole frontline spinner when most other teams have taken at least three. Instead, Australia decided to focus on a speed-based approach. They chose the aging Brett Lee and the injury-prone Shaun Tait to spearhead their attack. This approach has plenty of flaws.
First of all, Lee and Tait are highly unlikely to last an entire World Cup without breaking down, this means that replacements would need to be called up and the squad would almost certainly be disrupted by any injuries that these two man incur.
Secondly, they are both very expensive. The best time to score runs in the subcontinent is at the start when the ball is hard. Teams will be going hard at Australia in the first ten, knowing that they can get off to a roller coaster start thanks to the pace of Lee and Tait. So whilst Australia may well take a few early wickets, they will almost certainly concede early runs which could easily act as a springboard for the opposition to launch from.
Thirdly, whilst this approach might reap dividends on more responsive pitches, such as the ones in South Africa or England. The dead pitches that Australia will encounter in the subcontinent will almost certainly nullify the threat the speedsters provide.
The selection of Hauritz has also been thrown into doubt. When he was originally selected (after being surprisingly ignored by the selectors all summer) there was much debate about whether the impressive Xavier Doherty would have been a better option, or an option alongside Hauritz. Doherty impressed on ODI debut and was considered very unlucky. Well, in the ODI at Hobart, the incredibly unfortunate Hauritz dislocated his shoulder. It is unknown whether he will recover in time for the World Cup and in the meantime Doherty will be looking to impress to stake his claim for a place.
There are also some problems with the batting. None of Australia’s batsmen are in brilliant form, especially those in the middle order, who appear very scratchy. One of the more impressive players, Shaun Marsh, who made a century in Hobart is not even in the squad!
When you look at Australia’s squad. You are not consumed by the fear that accompanied their sides of old. Indeed, ‘old’ is a word quite in-keeping with the current side which is filled with aging players past their best.
I mentioned that Australia’s squad selection was risky. Well, if you are a fan of risk, why not bet on Australia winning their 4th consecutive World Cup? Because that is undoubtedly, a big risk.
Australia Squad: Shane Watson, Brad Haddin (wk), Ricky Ponting (C), Michael Clarke, Mike Hussey, Cameron White, Steve Smith, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Nathan Hauritz, Shaun Tait, Doug Bollinger, John Hastings, Tim Paine, David Hussey
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