Thought of the Day: Thoughts from the Second Test

Violet Jessop was born in Argentina of Irish immigrant parents in 1887 and went on to become a nurse, before then surviving the sinkings of three ships; the HMHS Brittanic, the RMS Olympic and even the well-known RMS Titanic. 

You may call this bad luck, but one result of it should have been the accumulation of patience and perspective on Violet's part.  Thinking of Violet, I wonder how she compared the Brittanic' sinking to the Titanics and whether she did so while it was sinking.

"I've had worse"

Similarly, Michael Clarke has recently captained Australia to two emphatic Test defeats to India, experiences which (should) be providing perspective not only on the team but also the state of Australian cricket.

Clarke wouldn't need too much reminding about emphatic defeats, with the 2010/11 Ashes drubbings not nearly a distant memory yet.  That series was supposedly a nadir for Australia, with selectors forced to go to the cupboard to find replacements for its previously champion side, only to find the cupboard bare.

Putting the disastrous 2010/11 Ashes series next to the two tests in India, as well as other recent performances does provide some perspective, some of which is actually positive.

Firstly, Australia pushed the number one ranked side in the world, South Africa, over two tests before losing the third (and final) in the series after having to change their entire bowling line-up due to injury.  The Baggy Greens had the momentum for much of the series and were only denied a win in Adelaide by a miraculous innings from Faf, but things like that happen in cricket.

Like this friggin catch

Another similarly game-changing innings occured in the first Test in Chennai, with MS Dhoni blasting 224 runs in a career-best performance.  Admittedly, Australia was unable to remove these batsmen on both occasions, but even Paul Collingwood was able to score 200 runs against an Australian attack that included Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.  Again, these things happen.

The other important piece of perspective to keep is that this test series is being played in India on pitches suited to the Indian team.  In many ways, this makes this series something of an anomaly as it doesn't represent that the Australian team is incompetent overall, just in India.  Indeed, the recent record of the Australian team in other countries is relatively strong.  The preference would certainly be for a team that is strong in all conditions, but given that we are still building from the nadir, we can't expect too much.

That being said, there are some obvious poor performers and poor performances that have been highlighted in the first two Tests so far.

Phillip Hughes was 'protected' from the South Africans by the selectors who wanted to give him an easy re-introduction to Test cricket and waited until the Sri Lankans were touring until he was picked.  He did well in that series, though not against spin and without any big scores.  He is still yet to dominate a bowling attack in Tests like he did when he was first picked and doesn't look like he will anytime soon.  The best thing for him, and Australian cricket, are a few more dedicated seasons of First Class cricket. He isn't even 25 years old yet so has years ahead of him.

2 stumps is not enough

Shane Watson still gives the impression that the team is lucky to have him in it.  Unfortunately for him, the dark days of the 2010/11 Ashes are past and the team has moved on.  He is no longer the best player in a bad team, but a bad one in an OK-to-good team.  His value to the team is negative without his bowling and he is currently taking the spot of a young batsman who may also score 20-30 runs now, but 50-60 in the future.

Finally, the strange pursuit of an all-rounder in the team is neither helping batting or bowling, but hurting both. 

Not naming names.

 The team in Hyderabad included 2 all-rounders (3 if you include Watson, 4 if you include Clarke, 5 if you include Wade, 6 if you include Pattinson), neither of whom contributed enough with either bat or ball. 

Given the team struggled with both bat and ball, it is probably a more astute policy to drop both and play a specialist for each role in their place.