Tag Archives: Ashes 2013

Countdown to the Ashes: is IPL the best preparation for the Australian team?

April 3, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks, Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Today marks 98 days until the 1st Ashes test starts. In those next 98 days the two combatants for the Urn will be undertaking various preparatory steps with an eye on victory in the most time honoured contest in cricket.

Also during that 98 day span the annual hit and giggle, sorry T20, tournament that is the Indian Premier League will also be fought out on the sub-continent. The English and Australian teams are contributing the following players who might play in a roll in the Ashes campaign to the IPL this season:

Australia:

Ben Hilfenhaus (Chennai Super Kings)
David Warner (Delhi Daredevils)
Ryan Harris (Kings XI Punjab)
Shaun Marsh (Kings XI Punjab)
Brad Haddin (Kolkata Knight Riders)
James Pattinson (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Glenn Maxwell (Mumbai Indians)
Mitchell Johnson (Mumbai Indians)
Phil Hughes (Mumbai Indians)
Michael Clarke (Pune Warriors)
Steve Smith (Pune Warriors)
Moises Henriques (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
James Faulkner (Rajasthan Royals)
Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals)

England:

Kevin Pietersen (Delhi Daredevils)
Eoin Morgan (Kolkata Knight Riders)

Three problems immediately come to mind when looking at the impact of the IPL on the preparations of players for the Ashes:

1. The English are not effected indeed they are probably enhanced: Simply put the English team are not effected by the imposition of the IPL on its team because of the few players they have playing in the competition. The remainder of their players will be playing in the County Championship in England and, by my count, will have the opportunity to play in no less than 15 County Championship matches as well as a three test series against New Zealand before taking to the field on June 10 at Trent Bridge.

2. Is playing T20 cricket good preparation for a test series? The IPL runs from 3 April until 26 May. Those Australian players who are committed to IPL franchises, and it is conceded there is a whole squad of them, will be in India for the whole of that time and then will travel to England (those who are selected) to play in the ICC Champions Trophy from 8 June until the final (if Australia makes it) on 23 June. The next first class or red ball game of cricket the players playing in the IPL will actually play will commence on 26 June against Somerset at Taunton. There is one first class game after that against Worcestershire at Worcester in the week following before the first test.

If the recent results in India taught Australian cricket nothing else it is the importance of the need for a solid preparation before a series. It is incomprehensible that the Australian team could be getting anything like that given the forgoing schedule. For a start the players participating in the IPL will be expected to move from Indian conditions to those of England with very limited lead time to prepare. Further, a season of hit and giggle will not prepare anyone for the seaming decks one can surmise will be produced in England. Defence with the bat will be at a premium in England and the Australian players are preparing with a competition that is focused on scoring rate not occupation of the crease.

3. Sitting on the bench in India is not good preparation either: One of the real problems that I foresee for the Australians playing in India is not that they will be playing too much cricket but too little. The IPL is replete with stories of players who are international stars or, at the very least, developing stars getting large IPL contracts and then spending the seven weeks of the tournament mixing the cordials and sitting on the pine. I see that as a real risk for players like Steve Smith, James Faulkner, Ben Hilfenhaus, Ryan Harris and James Pattinson. Rolling the arm over in the nets in India once every couple of days for seven weeks is not the kind of intense physical training one would expect these players to need in advance of the Ashes.

I concede that I am traditionalist and I am not a fan of T20 cricket. I also concede that no matter what fans like me think domestic T20 cricket is here to stay. Frankly, I do not begrudge anyone wishing the supplement their income from playing in tournaments such as this. Equally, I want to see Australia win the Ashes back in England, preferably on or about 5 August at Old Trafford (end of the third test) but I fear that, on top of the type of squad the Australian selectors are likely to name (see my blog on that topic here: https://shumpty77.com/2013/04/01/unluckiest-players-in-the-country-who-will-miss-out-on-ashes-selection-and-why-they-ought-be-there/ ), the preparation that the Australians are going through in advance of the series is giving the English an extra advantage that they do not really need.

Unluckiest players in the country: who will miss out on Ashes selection and why they ought be there!

April 1, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , 3 Comments

Recently on twitter I named a squad for Australia’s upcoming tilt at resting the Ashes from the English and returning them to their rightful home in Australia. Everyone is writing at the moment about who would be in their squad and why. I think however it is blindingly obvious that Cricket Australia will pick a fairly predictable squad that is based around the team that played in India and is in line with Cricket Australia’s seemingly long term plan to develop players for the next World Cup (G Maxwell at the top of the list).

So this blog post will be different. I am resigned to the fact that certain players will not be selected for the coming Ashes series for whatever reason. In this blog I will name 4 players I consider should be on the Ashes tour but who will not be selected by Cricket Australia and discuss why they should be in England.

First though, this is the squad of 17 I suspect Cricket Australia will take to England:

Warner
Cowan
Hughes
Watson
Clarke
Khawaja
Smith
Maxwell
Henriques
Wade
Haddin
Pattinson
Cummins
Siddle
Lyon
Starc
Bird

For what ever reason I think Cricket Australia will not be dissuaded by the disaster in India and will want to persevere with Maxwell as the second spinner in the team. Cricket Australia seem to be blind to the obvious problems with Patrick Cummins not actually playing domestic cricket and I expect them to select him. Smith did enough in India to be on the tour and I have to say: I have no real cavil with that. I am on the record that I do not think David Warner has the technique or the temperament to succeed in English conditions and nothing I have read since India convinces me otherwise however it would cost too much money for Cricket Australia not to pick him so I think he still tours.

Having named the team I think will go, here are the 4 players I think should be on the tour and are desperately unlucky not to be there:

1. James Faulkner

The best all rounder in the country will not be picked for the Ashes series because, unfathomably, the selectors seem to have at least 3 all rounders ahead of him. That rating from the selection panel belies how good this bloke is. One only needs to have seen his performance in the Shield final to understand what value he would bring to the Australian squad in English conditions.

He bats at number 8 for Tasmania and that is where I believe the all rounder the Australia team needs should be batting. He is not a “strike rate” player rather can build an innings as his vital hands in the Shield final showed. He bowls left arm swing at a fair clip. He is solid in the field.

He is in my Ashes squad because he provides a left arm swing bowling option to supplement the bowling of Pattinson and Starc. In the perfect world Watson would also be bowling so the Australians would have 4 fast bowling options in my ideal 1st test lineup.

2. Ryan Harris

I think everyone who watches the game in Australia agrees: there is no finer fast bowler in the country, when fit, that one R Harris. For all of Cricket Australia’s focus on the management of workloads of fast bowlers the one fast bowler who probably really needed such management was Harris. He was not so managed and ended up seriously injured but now is back and on the evidence of the Shield final can now bowl a significant number of overs in long stretches.

Harris is a quality right arm fast bowler who hurls it down at over 140kms an hour, has the ability to swing the ball both ways as well as bowl cutters. Harris is a lion hearted performer who will not wilt from a challenge. He is a player much in the style of Peter Siddle without the limitations that Peter Siddle often possesses. No slouch with the willow he could easily slot into the number 9 position after Faulkner.

He will not be selected because Cricket Australia is squeamish about players being hurt. Well, players that it does not consider to be “project players of the future” (Cummins is example number one) that is. He would be in my squad because he is a genuine wicket taker and has a heart the size of Phar Lap’s.

3. Chris Rogers

Rogers was not in my original squad that I named on twitter in part because I think it is more likely that the Melbourne Demons win the flag this year than he be selected in Australian colours again. That is, in my opinion, an absolute travesty.

Forget his performance in his one test match at the WACA so long ago. Forget the fact he consistently scores buckets of runs in the Shield competition. Forget his age. The fact is that since M Hussey there has not been a better performed Australian, over a period of more than one season (P Hughes I am looking at you), in the English County Championship than Chris Rogers. Rogers is an absolute run machine in England, has a strong temperament and technique for English conditions and would be an experienced addition to a young and inexperienced change room.

Rogers will not be selected on this tour because of his age and because, it would appear, he has irritated someone on high within Cricket Australia. He should be there because he is a more complete player in English conditions that one D Warner among others.

4. Steve O’Keefe

The left arm tweaker from New South Wales was given one of the poisoned chalices of domestic cricket in Australia over recent teams, the New South Wales captaincy, and handled himself with aplomb. More to the point though he is the best performed spin bowler, of any variety, in domestic cricket in Australia this summer.

O’Keefe is a strong leader, a good tweaker of the red ball and, much like R Harris, no slouch with the willow. He delivers his left arm orthodox spin with loop and flight and not the flat trajectory preferred by the Australian selectors. He has an opinion and is prepared to espouse it at almost any opportunity which also does not endear him to Inverarity, Clarke and Co.

O’Keefe should be on the plane: one only needs to look at the results England have when Swann and Panesar bowl in tandem. Lyon and O’Keefe would be as strong a spin bowling duo to go to England in the baggy green since the famed Warne and May in 1993 in my view. He won’t be selected though because he has the temerity to have an opinion and the selectors think Maxwell actually is “the big show”.

I consider these players to be the unluckiest in the country at the moment and that it is appalling that they will not be playing in the holy grail of cricket contests, the Ashes, for reasons out of their own control. Cricket Australia has a selection agenda that focuses on “project players” and, it would seem, developing a squad for the 2015 World Cup. That mantra coupled with a focus on injury management and a couple of personality clashes will see players obviously deserving of selection spending their winter either playing T20 domestic cricket in India or the West Indies or watching their favourite football team run around each weekend.

The third coming of Mitchell Johnson: a new beginning or a false dawn?

January 2, 2013 By in Shumpty Speaks Tags: , , , Leave a comment

I have been one of the many critics of the selection of Mitchell Johnson in the Australian cricket team this summer. The “Toughsticker Turncoat” I have called him on twitter and it would be fair to say I have not had a positive word to say about him.

Johnson’s selection to bat at number 7 in the coming test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground has given me a moment of pause and caused me to reflect on whether the return of Johnson to test match cricket and his installation as a bowling all rounder into the Australian team is really the new beginning for him (and Australian cricket) it seems to be.

Let’s start with the statistics: 49 test matches, nearly 1500 runs at an average of 22.77 and 202 wickets at an average of 30.63 does not make for bad reading although any cricket fan will tell you that the great all rounders have batting averages higher than their bowling averages.

In the two tests he has played this summer he has taken 12 wickets at an average of around 20 and has scored 102 runs at an average of 51 (92 not out at the MCG in the last test obviously assists that average).

Those statistics considered: why do we (or I) malign him so? Are we (or I) punishing him unduly for the very obvious poor performances in his career to date where he has shouldered the burden of leading the Australian attack and failed? I think the the answer to this last question is that fans do remember those poor performances and, for some, they are performances that will never leave the memory because they were so disappointing.

Is it more than that though? Tracing Johnson’s career through statistics and match reports is just not enough to get a whole picture of the player that he is. I watch a lot of live cricket and have watched a lot of Johnson playing the game. Part of what has bothered me since the disaster of the 2009 Ashes and the performances from Johnson that have followed are two things. Firstly, the body language of Johnson when things go bad on the field is often suggests a mix of indifference and of not having any answers. Secondly, one of the few things about the performances of Johnson has been the consistency in his inconsistency. All too often a grand performance (Perth 2010 comes to mind) is followed by a series of mediocre performances.

Now the Australian cricket team faces a year of 10 test matches against a presently cockahoop English team as well as a tough tour of India. Once again off the back of one excellent performance Johnson seems to be in the frame to tour with the Australian team to England and elsewhere and is touted as the cure to the team’s all rounder ills. I, for one, am worried about when the bubble of Johnson’s performances will burst and whether Australian fans will again be subjected to performances like the Ashes in 2009 and the first Ashes test at the Gabba in 2010.

The other concern I have about the selection of Johnson in the long term is the road block it creates not only for Mitchell Starc, the excellent young left arm swing bowler from New South Wales, but also the other bowling all rounders who might be knocking on the door. Ben Cutting, James Faulkner and Nathan Coulter-Nile all are performing in red ball cricket in Australia this summer and all could be seen to comfortably fit into a role batting at number 7 or 8 for Australia whilst bowling 20 overs of pace an innings.

When all is said and done I remain firmly in the camp that questions Johnson’s ongoing selection for the Australian team albeit I am able to concede that on the numbers alone his spot in the team probably makes sense. My feet sit in the “non-selection” camp now more because of the possible impact his selection may have on the next bowling all rounder to come through the ranks or, for that matter, Mitchell Starc coupled with my fear that the bursting of his performance bubble, based on the recent past, is closer than many may expect.

For Australian cricket’s sake I hope one of two things happens: either this genuinely is a second coming for Mitchell Johnson and he serves me up a big piece of humble pie with excellent and sustained performances or Johnson is jettisoned and one of the young future stars I mention above is given a shot to make the position of bowling all rounder there own.

I, like all Australian fans, want the best Australian cricket team to take the field every time it plays and, probably more importantly, to win back the Ashes this year. I am unsure whether the benefits that Johnson brings to the team are outweighed by the prospect that a couple of bad performance by him could be a deciding factor in the urn staying at Lords. I will be watching with interest as events unfold at the Sydney Cricket Ground tomorrow.