No Ashes comeback for Australia: Darren Gough
Former England Test player Darren Gough has brushed aside the prospects of Australian team staging a comeback and winning the Ashes. Gough pinpoints Australian bowling attack as their main weakness and insists that without improving their bowling potential,
Aussies are in no position to produce a comeback or least win the series.
The hosts are increasingly under pressure as they are now making desperate calls for the return of the legendary leg-spinner Shane Warne. However, Gough thinks that Cricket Australia is wise enough to not make such backward steps. Australia finds itself
in corner after England decimated the hosts in Adelaide to win the match with the margin of an innings and 71 runs.
Resultantly, question marks are raised on Ricky Ponting’s captaincy and calls are made to Shane Warne to end his retirement and return to Test cricket in order to salvage some respect for the Kangaroos. But Gough thinks that such calls are premature. Former
England fast bowler said, “It's not going to happen. If someone rang Shane and said 'we really need you' I think he'd probably say yes, but Cricket Australia just isn’t going to do that. They would never ask him because it would be going back on their own
statement to back youth. It just won't happen.”
According to Gough, Perth Test will be the last chance for Ponting’s men to make something out of the series otherwise it will be all England’s show. Australia holds an incredible record at Perth and WACA is considered citadel of Australian cricket. Perth
exhibits bouncy track which has been exploited by the Australian pace-men for many years but with current crop of bowlers, Australia is unlikely to trouble solid English batting line-up.
Commenting on it, Gough said, “I can't see how they are going to win a game. Their best chance is at Perth where their record is very good, but England have got players who all play well off the back foot so they won't be worried about extra bounce - they'll
actually enjoy it. I just can't see that they have the bowlers, whoever they pick, to bowl England out twice.”
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746 on the bouncy track of Perth and
could be the main difference between the two sides. Johnson who is the highest wicket-taker for Australia in the current team was dropped after he went wicket-less in the agonizing first Test at Brisbane.
Gough said, “The reason they are struggling is because they can't take 20 wickets. They left out their best strike bowler in Mitchell Johnson which was a total surprise to me. He's the one guy who can bowl a team out and Ricky Ponting knows that and that's
why he has backed him in the media.”
England will also be changing their bowling line-up after Stuart Broad was ruled out of the series. Broad, who is considered the main anchor of visitors’ bowling unit, sustained an abdominal injury during the 2nd Test. England can call any of the three reserve
fast bowlers which are Chris Tremlett, Tim Bresnan and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Victoria-c859 ahead of the third Test.
Commenting on it, Gough said, “If it had been any other pitch over there I'd have gone for Tim Bresnan but I just think we need that bit of extra firepower at Perth where there's a touch more bounce. You look at history and the guys that have done well there
are the tall bowlers - Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Glenn McGrath - the guys who can hit back-of-a-length to make the most of the extra bounce and carry.”
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