Mixed feelings watching Australia bat

It's confusing watching Australia bat with book-hero Ed Cowan opening with  Middlesex-heroes Hughes and Warner but there wil be no second thoughts when it comes to the summer and The Ashes. Can Australia find another opener begining with Co..... to make a complete set with Cook and Compton, assuming that Cowan's running between the wickets hasn't cost him his place? Would he be the first batsman dropped from a Test side for that failing?

 

Australia look shakey for 2013 and massively reliant on Michael Clarke

It sounds strange to say Australia are looking shakey for next year when they've just thrashed Sri Lanka inside two and a half days and when they're captain has scored more runs than any other Australian in one calendar year in 2012.   Particularly as they were very unlucky to lose their three match series against the number 1 Test team South Africa too.

But it's difficult to see how a side stripped of Ponting, Hussey and Haddin is going to go into the Ashes next year as favourites, despite the advances being made by in the seam bowling department.   Jackson Bird looks a great find and I think he'll be very dangerous on English wickets in swinging conditions, along with any of Siddle, Starc, Johnson and Pattinson.

But imagine if Michael Clarke was to go down injured...there's literally no-one that it's possible to pick out as a natural leader at this stage.   Clarke seems to get through without missing many games but the Aussies still have to consider what they would do in that circumstance - there's no other Test team so reliant on one player as Australia in 2013.   It's getting bad when you see that people like Warner and Cowan are being suggested as leaders - both are inexperienced at Test level and Warner's shot selection issues will make it hard for him to guide others, while Cowan averages less than 35 at the stage.

I can't believe that Australia would have wanted it this way.   If they'd known that Hussey was going to retire, I wonder whether Ponting might have continued, or whether Haddin might have been the better choice over Wade (who is now being touted as a number 6 despite averaging 36 to date)....Wade's certainly not set the world alight and Haddin's been in superb form in Australian domestic cricket.   Perhaps Wade was selected for his bowling - Haddin certainly doesn't proclaim to be able to bowl!

It'll be interesting to see how Australia shape up over the next 12 months and whether Michael Clarke can stay fit.   Without him they'll really be struggling....

Champions League Highlights and Lowlights

Some great batting recently in the Champions League, particularly from David Warner. Personally I have no problem with the likes of Warner and Pietersen playing left and right handed....bowlers don't have to tell the batsmen which way they want to spin or swing the ball, so why should a batsman who is capable of batting either way advertise what he intends to do in advance?

There's also been some good bowling - Alfonso Thomas' death bowling for Somerset in their last match was great to watch. Apart from odd eye-catching performances though, in general the standard of the cricket has been pretty poor overall I would say, particularly some of the bowling and fielding, which only adds weight to those that argue Twenty20 is "dumming down" cricket.

What isn't in doubt is how much the players want to win. Alfonso Thomas said that of all the competitions they entered this year, the Champions League is the one they want to win, and if you look at Virat Kohli, his eyes are nearly popping out of his head. He played a great innings yesterday, but I find it hard to believe that he can be thinking with a cool head when so hyped up. Gavaskar asked yesterday "if there was a better 21 year-old batsman in the world" and I agree he's extremely talented, but I'm not sure Twenty20 is going to help him realise that talent....certainly not in Test cricket anyway.

Who knows what impact Twenty20 will have on player skills long-term, but I do worry that basic cricket skills are being lost which will reduce the quality of Test cricket and therefore the audience for it.

Warne to return

Shane Warne may be backing Ricky Ponting to lead Australia in The Ashes but I loved this post on The Roar suggesting Warne should come back and captain the side himself! After 4 years out of international cricket even a legend like Warne may struggle with that.

As a Pom it's great to see Australia struggling before The Ashes and it can only benefit England that Ponting's captaincy is being called into question and they're losing repeatedly to India....

David Warner - you read about him here first... possibly.

Following on from Ed's post about spotting Bangladesh's rising star Al-Hassan, I'm going to (not so) subtly remind readers that in my post covering last year's Hong Kong Sixes I recommended David Warner as one for the future... and who should make 89 off 43 balls against South Africa on his debut (I'll gloss over his next knock of 7 off 12 as the always difficult second innings)?

If Anwar Ali comes good I might just quit this mathematical research lark and become a cricket scout full-time...

HK at Sixes and Sevens

A couple of weekends ago Kowloon Cricket Club hosted the Hong Kong Sixes. In many ways it's a similar event to the much more famous Rugby Sevens tournament held every March: world class players from all over the globe play over a couple of days to a largely expat audience who mix actually watching the game with catching up with friends and drinking themselves silly. Of course, the Sixes are of a much smaller scale, with crowds up 4,000ish compared ten times that for the rugby, but this cosiness has its advantages one of which being physically much closer to the action.

This year's tournament was superb, despite the All Stars team (comprising Fleming, Chanderpaul, Henderson, Hoggard, Jayasuriya, Langer and Vaas) performing poorly, mainly because a lot of the games went down to the wire. A few players caught my eye; Irfan Ahmed who opened the batting for Hong Kong (who came 4th out of 8 teams) and retired after reaching 31 runs in each of his innings until his last against Australia; David Warner of Australia who batted and fielded amazingly in the final against England and finally Anwar Ali from Pakistan who bowls at decent pace and hits a long ball (check out his inswing bowling in the U-19 World Cup final against India when Pakistan somehow defended 110).

The final was between an English team full of seasoned county pros (Mascarenhas, Joyce, Bresnan, Wagg, Maddy and Napier) and a very young Australian team. It looked to be all over at the half way mark after England posted a whopping 120 of 5 eight ball overs. Australia though, led by Warner, batted astonishingly well and with 11 required off the last over they were firm favourites. Suddenly the festival atmosphere that we had so enjoyed over the past two days evaporated as the crowd became tense. Goodness knows how Tim Bresnan felt as he ran up to bowl but whatever nerves he felt did not betray his action which landed yorker after yorker. A good catch on the point boundary and the retiring of one of Australia's hitters left 2 runs required off the last two balls. The batsman could only squeeze another yorker back to the bowler and the entire tournament came down to Australia needing two runs off the last ball.

When Bresnan let the ball go, the non-striker was already half-way down the pitch. Again, the batsman could only squirt a full-length ball to Darren Maddy at long-on. His sharp thinking won England the tournament as he realised that the non-striker would complete his two runs easily. A hard, flat throw to the keeper's end found the striker short of his ground and the scores finished tied, with England winning thanks to fewer wickets lost.

All in all, a fantastic weekend and a real treat to watch some potential future stars and of course England winning something!