A Post Mortem of Australia's dip and the Prospects

A Post Mortem of Australia’s dip and the Prospects: After performing rather poorly in the third and fourth Test of the Ashes, the Aussies have been exposed to considerate amount of criticism and questions. Of course one can’t expect the World Champions to be bundled for a score of just 60 runs. Not only that, both the third and the fourth Test were concluded within two and a half day’s play with England beating and dominating over Australia considerably.

As a matter of fact, Australia ’s despair seems to be pretty much consistent now with the Ashes  has already been lost with a Test to spare. Now to grasp onto the humiliation and its causes, let us analyse few things which need prior attention.

To start with, one is bound to ponder upon the fact that the Australian middle order in the batting line up has been quite much miserable throughout the series. Their skipper, Michael Clarke averages less than 30 in the last 30 test innings. The pit in the middle order led to dreadful consequences with the bat for the Australians. Another factor which brought them to such a phase is Shane Watson’s wayward form. Watson did not click either with the bat or ball in the initial Test. As a consequence of which, he was dropped from the team which dismantled the balance of the squad.

Also Read – Top 10 Lowest totals in the Ashes

In the opening slot too, Warner and Rogers were significantly successful individually but they failed to contribute much in the partnership. And for most of the times, Australia lost their first wicket under a low score which invited too much pressure. Leaving the second Test, Steve Smith, the Australian vice captain looked like a man in despair with the bat to a considerable extent. No one expected such a batting disaster from the World Champions but they were simply crushed.

Not only the batting, their bowling wasn’t even something noteworthy. Mitchell Johnson struggled throughout the series so far. Apart from his performances in the second test, he failed to bring the minimal of the trouble to the English batsmen. Also, other bowlers in the likes of Mitchell Starc and John Hazlewood were quite much ineffective. However, they can’t be blamed entirely. The bowlers could hardly fetch some light after a batting misery. In fact, when a team is bundled for 60 runs and the bowling unit fails to capitalize, logically, the bowling unit can hardly be blamed.

After back to back losses, the conclusive Test will be a dead rubber. But Australian’s have a cloud of things to ponder upon from hence. Of course, the first of which is the batting. They have to find someone reliable enough to resist a batting collapse. Also, a genuine all-rounder was something which was terribly missed by the Australian’s in the series. The bowlers also got to react to situations. They were predominantly successful in their home soils but when it comes to overseas, they become quite ineffective, which hurts the team big time.

Michael Clarke failed to click with the bat and this, quite obviously, has affected his captaincy traits to some extent. To sum it up, the Australian team looks in definite spots of bother and there are a bundle of things to worry about at the moment. Players have to learn to take responsibilities and make themselves commendable to the test format. Also, adjusting to conditions become an important factor when it comes to bowling. In each of the batting and bowling unit, they need the presence of a few who can well take responsibilities. They don’t lack spirit, but it only becomes effective if such spirit is brought to perfect shape for the team’s cause.