The spirit to dominate

Australia will seek to re-establish their dominance in world cricket without two of their finest bowlers over the next few months.

The Twenty20 World Cup starts in South Africa next month and the Australians will be eager to win the inaugural edition. In October, Australia will tour India for a series of one-day matches.
The home season gets under way in November against Sri Lanka and then India follow in December and January.
Life will be very different for the Australians without Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath. These two super bowlers have left their mark on Australian cricket and will be very hard to replace.
Even in their last series they performed with great distinction and left with their reputation and immense skills intact.
Warne tweaked Australia to a thumping 5-0 Ashes whitewash against England while McGrath played a major hand in his country’s World Cup triumph.
As a short-term replacement, Australia will look to Stuart MacGill to fill in for Warne. MacGill will now get a clear run in the Australian side.
However, MacGill at 36, is in the twilight of his career and will probably play for a couple of years if he keeps full fitness. Another disadvantage is that MacGill has not featured in a Test match for over a year-and-a-half.
There are at least three young spinners who may well don the Australian cap this summer if MacGill fails to deliver.
Off-spinner Dan Cullen is going through a confidence crisis at the moment but has won an Australian contract which means he is very much on the minds of the selectors.
Cullen has all the characteristics of a good off-spinner. He can flight ball, make it dip and spin a lot. He has also added the “doosra” to his armoury as is the trend with most off-spinners today.
Cullen already got a taste of international cricket in Bangladesh where he proved to be economical. He is also a student of Terry Jenner who helped Warne during his long career.
Cameron White is a leg-spinning all-rounder who has already represented Australia in 16 one-day internationals. He is a tall bowler who bowls fastish leg spin without too many variations.
However he is very accurate and has an astute cricketing brain which led him to be named captain of his state, Victoria, at the age of 20. He is a hard-hitting lower middle-order batsman and if he develops this aspect of the game then he could easily fit into the ageing Australian cricket side in the future.
The third and most promising Australian bowler is Cullen Bailey. Though he does not rip the ball like Warne or Richie Benaud, he has all the characteristics of a good leg-spinner. He is accurate for a bowler of his kind and this will prove in good stead.
Bailey is only 22 at the moment and is being carefully groomed by Jenner. He could, among the three, be the long-term replacement for Warne.
Australia are lucky in the fast bowling department. They have a spate of bowlers just waiting to grab the chance.
McGrath’s immediate replacement will be, in all probability Stuart Clark. With 47 wickets in just nine Tests, Clark has taken to international cricket very easily.
He possesses most of the characteristics of McGrath and bowls a mean line like his predecessor. The only problem is that Clark will turn 32 in September and does not have many years of cricket ahead of him.
With Brett Lee now fit and ready to take over the mantle of spearhead, Australia will be hoping that Shaun Tate carries on with the good work he did during the World Cup.
Tate has speed and bowls a deadly yorker. He and Lee will make a very potent combination in the future.
There are others like Mitchell Johnson and Nathan Bracken waiting to in the wings for a long run in Test cricket. The two left-armers have loads of talent. Bracken, in particular, is getting better and better by the day and could add variety to the Australian attack in the long-term.
Australia have a strong system from wherein top-class players emerge. The domestic set-up is the most competitive in the world and the Australian selectors are forward-thinking always.
The future is always bright when it comes to Australian cricket.

By Babu Kalyanpur
babu.kallianpur@tradearabia.net