All not going smooth for Aussies before The Ashes
Australia is not having a dream run before the Ashes. They would have liked to have a confidence booster but Australia has lost a number of important matches in the recent past and it seems to have taken its toll on the mighty Kangaroos.
For Australia it is looking more like a challenging task to regain The Ashes as critics from every corner are not only criticizing their current form but also pointing out issues related to a rift among players.
England, who is in Australia now and is preparing for the first Ashes Test has a wonderful opportunity to retain The Ashes in Australia. England have had a dream run for about year and have had all the right things happening at the right time for them.
Confidence is a factor that plays a vital role for any team before the start of a big series and confidence and form is one thing that is on England’s side.
Australia’s case is totally opposite compared to England’s. Australia is lacking form, confidence and the luck factor. Wednesdays defeat added more misery to the Australian side when they were unable to take the last two wickets and what seemed to be a one
sided victory at one time was converted into a miracle win for the Sri Lankan’s.
Angelo Mathews and Malinga played the innings of their life time when none of Aussie bowlers were able to dismiss the pair, especially Malinga.
Though Australia has not performed poorly, they have not been consistent enough, a factor you need to have on your side before any big series. Adding to their misery, Australian media is also being critical of its players and team. After the first defeat
in the opening match of the series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, Australian media didn’t take much time to criticize their side. It seems the Australian media is fed up with their recent losses and have decided to criticize them to a great level.
The Sydney Morning Herald highlighted that once again Australia was not able to finish off their opponent. In another Australian newspaper it was highlighted that Australia has discovered new ways of losing a match.
All these comments highlight Australia’s inability to be consistent and finish the match properly in recent times. Australia knows that for its players to create an early impact in The Ashes series they should be consistent and confident.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 and since then they have lost a Test series in India.
In One Day matches played recently, they lost the series against India. In a rain filled series in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 they lost the series 1-0 when first and third One Dayer was abandoned without even a ball bowled. In the second One Dayer they lost the match when their
bowlers were unable to defend a relatively competitive total of 289. Before this series, they played a One Day series in England where they lost the series 3-2. So obviously momentum is not with Australians at the moment.
Adding more to their worries there have been rumours of a rift in the Australian side, something we have not heard for decades. Australian’s have this special ability of staying united in all type of situations and a rift is something we don’t see very often
in their side.
Some are suggesting that the mighty Aussies are finally starting to crack and what was once a hard and rough Aussie side is now falling apart. Whether these rumours are correct or not one thing is for sure, their opponents will exploit their weaknesses from
every angle.
Australia generally don’t give anything to their opponent to comment on and these rumours of divisions and rift within the team can only give something extra to its opponents along with its current form to exploit as weakness.
There are certain suggestions from Australian media that there is a kind of division in the Australian side over Micheal Clarke’s One Day captaincy and him being next in line for Captain after Ponting.
Speculation’s emerge that Marcus North would be captaining the Test side. Marcus North rejected these rumours and took them as just good humour. He also said that Ponting has been there as a captain for number of years and Clarke is the one who is being
groomed as the next captain.
Apart from this there were certain suggestions in the Australian media that there is a rift between Michael Clarke and Michael Hussey as Clarke made comments about Hussey. Michael Hussey came late in the Indian Test series as he had commitments in South
Africa where he was playing in the Champions League. Clarke did not comment directly on Hussey but said national duty is more important compared to playing in the IPL or Champions league.
Australian’s, intelligent enough are not catering to these comments and deny any kind of rift within the team. But it highlights the fact that when things are not going in your favour then all of a sudden every other issue starts to emerge.
Hussey was quick to deny reports of any kind of rift between him and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Clarke-c51120 and said that he has a good relationship with him and Clarke has a good cricketing brain, and backed him as the next captain of the side.
Australian’s like always are behaving as nothing has happened but they cannot hide the fact that things for quite some time have not been going in their favour and they have been facing criticism from every corner, be it their current form, media speculation
of rift among players, etc.
Momentum is something that must be in your favour if you ought to have a certain advantage over your opponent in any series. In case of Australia it is somewhat against them and one wonders how much it would affect their players mentally before the big series.
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