What has happened to the Aussie Batting?

[Sean Bradley]

What on earth are Aussies thinking?? Certainly there must be better players than Phil Hughes & Ed Cowan in their domestic circuit. Ed Cowan is a walking wicket against any spinner in the world. Threw his wicket away to Joe Root?? Phil Hughes on the other hand scored 60 odd runs in the first innings, but his technique looks so flawed that it will not let him survive at the Intl. level for long. Then they come to play Ashes with a 35 year old opener who no one has heard of, looks decent at his best. They rely heavily on Michael Clarke and Shane Watson who is highly inconsistent in this format. Steven Smith looks ok, but still finding his feet at this level. They have left out Glen Maxwell, Adam Voges, George Bailey, out of this squad. George Bailey in particular seems to have a matured head on his shoulder has captained their T20 Intl. team. Glen Maxwell looks a very decent bat and plays spin well in particular. I have seen him take Ajmal for cleaners in a ODI match in UAE. Adam Voges is promising and certainly better than Cowan or Hughes. Then they have a Warner & Sean Marsh (not sure if hes fit) lurking around their squad. This Aussie batting line up is absolutely hopeless, they just dont have the nerves and experience to compete in the Ashes Cricket, forget winning it. Heres my pick for the top 7 Watson Warner/Marsh Maxwell Clarke Bailey Voges/Smith Haddin. A team with langer, hayden, martin, ponting in the past is struggling to find decent successors. Surely they could do better than this, thoughts?

[bulbul]

Check their FC stats. My guess is new players are no longer interested in long format of game & current players are not good.

[rkt.india]

Bailey and Voges are any day better than Hughes and Cowan. Even Forrest is better than these guys.

[rkt.india]

Check their FC stats. My guess is new players are no longer interested in long format of game & current players are not good.

That is because pitches in FC cricket in Australia are more bowler friendly nowadays than what they were 5 years ago. Since 2009, they have particularly changed the nature of most pitches. Even pitches like SCG who were supposed to be spin friendly are not what they used to be now. Michael Hussey in an interview said the same. He said batting Australian domestic cricket is more difficult now then what it was in his time because their focus on more seaming tracks. Aussie pitches only used to have pace and bounce which would prove good for batting but now as they leave more grass and moisture, it makes it difficult for batsmen to play big innings and until you have habit of playing big innings at FC level, you will hardly develop that big inning temperament. That is why flat pitches are important too. They enable batsmen to play long.

[panesarv]

Rogers has played just fine and he's a good player. Ed Cowan is the only guy that needs to be replaced.

[G_B_]

maybe Australia need to have balanced pitches? Its a bit worrying for Aus that Haddin and Rogers, the top scorers in the second innings are both effectively the old guard. If Michael Clarke had not burnt his bridges Katich would be playing. He is scoring a lot of runs in county cricket.

[bulbul]

Katich was thrown out some time back and OZ did well till india tour. Thier biggest problem is reliance on Watson to provide a good opening, which is not happening regularly

[Sean Bradley]

Katich was thrown out some time back and OZ did well till india tour. Thier biggest problem is reliance on Watson to provide a good opening, which is not happening regularly

More than Watson himself, they are struggling to find a man at the other end with him. Warner has issues outside cricket, by the time Rogers sets himself in in the intl cricket, it would be his retirement age. Sean Marsh has the potential i think.

[bulbul]

More than Watson himself' date=' they are struggling to find a man at the other end with him. Warner has issues outside cricket, by the time Rogers sets himself in in the intl cricket, it would be his retirement age. Sean Marsh has the potential i think.[/quote'] Yes, their opening is the main problem. Even Watson is not consistant.Unless openers play well regularly teams will be in trouble.Add to that their best batsman comes @ No4.

[Precambrian]

As long as Aussie selectors have fruitcakes for brains, they aren't going to get any better. They ignored someone like Rogers for too long, screwed Katich royally. And continues to ignore brilliant talent like Mark Cosgrove just because "he's fat". Lol! And they promote guys like Ed Cowan, Smith etc and persist with likes of Hughes despite tried and tested failure at the highest level. And then they prepare absolute bollocks of pitches for domestic cricket on which even Ishant Sharma would be Steyn-esque. A quick look at the batting charts of last season, hardly 2 guys who averaged more than 50. Its just exactly the reverse of what used to happen in Indian domestic cricket. Flat pitches all around, domestic bullies averaging in 60s and 70s by the dozens and zero bowlers. Batsmen need confidence - and appetite for big runs. Currently that's lacking in any of the players. All they think is "how do I survive the next delivery". The thinking stops there.

[Crookbond]

I have no idea how Ed Cowan gets ahead of someone like Forrest, Bailey etc.

[GolGappe]

They picked 4 openers, one non-rounder, and a captain with a crooked back as their top 6. The wk-keeper is no Gilchrist either. Expected better from Lehmann but he seems like all talk so far.