Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
There was a simplicity in the statement. Australian cricket has a knack for straight talk and Dan Christian, the all-rounder who came out of retirement last winter to feature in the Big Bash in his forties, justified the presence of veterans in four words: “Old men win things”. This was his philosophy in Twenty20 tournaments and he won tournaments in four different countries, often in his late thirties.
Since then, it is an attitude that has spread throughout Australian cricket. The absence of young people is glaring. When Australia last played a Test at home, there were no players under 20: there were 10 30-somethings, including teenager Sam Konstas. when they named his squad For First Ashes Test in PerthKonstas was dropped, 31-year-old Jake Weatherald was selected and 26-year-old cameron green He was the only person under the age of 30, accompanied by 14 of his elders. The Cameron Green generation includes only Cameron Green.
Which clearly presents a long-term problem. The immediate issue is whether this is a flaw that will cost them the Ashes; If Australia is an old team or an old team. Two of Australia’s greatest batsmen, Greg Chappell and Steve Waugh, have warned about the lack of change. Chappell played till the age of 35 and scored 182 runs in his last innings. Waugh was out on 38 with 80. Now, with seven of a possible 11 in Perth having at least 34, the question is whether their successors can resist both the passage of time and the England team with equal defiance.
Retirements may not be confirmed, but they may be on the agenda in the next few years. For Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne and Justin Langer, the Ashes whitewash in 2006-07 proved to be the perfect goodbye. The two bowlers shared 44 wickets and the opener scored 303 runs, each performing slightly worse than his career average, but each making important contributions and showing that their strengths were largely intact.
Is the same true of his successors? Australia has the most enduringly successful bowling unit in history, with four of their all-time top nine wicket-takers. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon have taken a combined total of 1,566 Test wickets, many of which were in attack with each other. Captain Cummins will not play in the first Test – and will be replaced by the still older Scott Boland, whose average is still low – but all three fast bowlers retain the pace associated with the younger players: Starc is both the oldest and fastest, although still 19 days younger than Mark Wood. The pitches in Australia have become more bowler-friendly, which could mean that the raw pace is now lower, which could help Hazlewood, Cummins and Boland. For spinner Lyon, going up against relative newbie Shoaib Bashir offers arguably the biggest advantage for Australia in a direct comparison between these teams.
Mo in batting. Usman KhawajaBorn in 1986, closer to Don Bradman’s final Test than today, he will be Australia’s oldest opening batsman in seven decades. His recent record has been strengthened by 232 runs against Sri Lanka in Galle. In his last 11 Test matches in seam-friendly conditions against New Zealand, India, South Africa and West Indies, he has scored 395 runs at an average of 18.8. In another era, with more competition, the 39-year-old might have been left out.
marnus labuschagne Was dropped – and it might have been good to leave a low-scoring series in the Caribbean – after averaging 25.8 in his last 15 Tests. Since then, the 31-year-old, a relative young man after scoring runs for Queensland, has clearly been called back to basics: in that respect, the older Marnus suggests the return of the player who tops the world Test rankings.
then there is steve smithHis status as the greatest player of all time is secure and he has 12 Ashes centuries to his name. The 36-year-old has averaged 42 in his last 23 Test matches: very good by most others’ standards, but a decline by his own standards. Smith is now undisputedly Australia’s best batsman, although Travis Head’s tendency to score runs quickly may make him the most dangerous. But if Smith can repeat his 2019 Ashes performance, when he averaged 110, England’s chances of regaining the vase will vanish.
Smith is among the most decorated players of that generation, having won two 50-over World Cups and a Twenty20 tournament, the World Test Championship, and who has dominated home Ashes series and topped the World Test rankings. He has medals, wickets, runs.
It would make sense if the veterans grew old together, especially if there is less pressure to fill their shoes on the players who were supposed to be their successors. Even the back-ups and relative newcomers – Weatherold, Beau Webster, Brendan Doggett, Sean Abbott – are their counterparts; For Australia, this should be even more worrying than the longevity of players like Smith and Starc.
But it provides reversal in the second role. Generally, Australia plays a more aggressive brand of cricket, while England seem staunchly conservative. Australia, the new country facing the old, is more likely to rely on young players while England seek solace in experience.
England now have buzzballs, with their own seniors as well as a group of twenty-something players, but have not won a Test in Australia for most of 15 years. Australia have many reasons to believe in the tried and trusted: their record, especially on home soil, is excellent.
Apart from the wipeouts by Warne, McGrath and Langer, there are other historical precedents as well. The tour of Australia may be too far away for the England players as they approach the end of the season. In 2013–14 it was down to Graeme Swann, Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen for different reasons. It was for Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting, for the same reason, in 1994–95, and for the mostly elderly team terrorized by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in 1974–75.
There may have been few Australian players who overstayed their welcome, but Jason Gillespie went from gun bowler to cannon fodder in a matter of weeks in 2005, the previously fearsome Thomson had taken only three wickets at 91 in 1985, and Graham McKenzie, the leading Test wicket-taker of the 1960s, had taken only seven expensive wickets in the 1970–71 Ashes.
However, in general, Australia, either through the selectors or through the players’ own decisions, is better at pensioning off cricketers before they suffer ignominious ends on the big stage. Has this group timed its exit in the same manner? Because now an elderly group has gathered for what will, for most people, be the last destruction of England. Do the old guys win Ashes series? Australia is about to find out.