The PlanetCricket View: A journey on Australia?s pace bowling roller coaster

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Jan 13, 2010
Article by Sylvester -

In the 90′s and 2000′s Australia’s batting depth ensured the current top 6 batting for Australia were always on their toes. Now as we begin a new decade, Australia’s fast bowling stocks appears to be on the way up and in time may rival the depth in the batting of yesteryear.

This time last year Australia’s bowling stocks hit a low point with many asking where the 20 wickets would coming from. Two months ago, Shane Watson was regarded as the second best quick after his brilliant 5-17 in the 1st Test against South Africa.While brilliant for Watson, it was no compliment to the men being picked as bowlers. Johnson was doing what he did best and Siddle had just returned and following a relatively solid showing in his only test in Sri Lanka, he left South Africa with 4 wickets at 51. Fans were once again worried that Siddle had not improved and it appeared we had the inconsistent duo (Johnson and Siddle) back in full force. What did not help either bowler was the fact a bowler who had only played 3 First Class matches with a less than impressive average in the 40s, well and truly out bowled them with 7 wickets in the match including a match winning 6-79.

Pat Cummins started the rise in stock for the pacemen however it appeared the pace bowling stock would rival the stock market crash of 1929. In the space of a month Mitchell Johnson would be ruled out for the summer, Ryan Harris and Pat Cummins would soon follow suit being ruled out for the rest of the year and the Australian A bowlers of Pattinson, Cutting, Starc and Hilfenhaus had just been taken around the park in the tour game against NZ. Siddle had suddenly become a certainty to play in the Test against New Zealand and he would have two new partners. The selectors decided against the steady Copeland and gave two new seamers their Baggy Green in James Pattinson and Mitchell Starc.

Then New Zealand came and went as we had another silly two match series. The Kiwis had just pulled out a famous win however the fast bowling stocks were on the rise again. Pattinson continued the awesome debuts by fast bowlers in 2011 and backed it up with another 5-fer in his second test. At this point Pattinson had become a certainty for the Boxing Day Test. Siddle appeared to thrive as the leader of the attack but we had all seen this from Siddle before.

Mitchell Starc’s less than impressive debut series meant either Harris or Hilfenhaus would play on Boxing Day. The selectors ended up playing cautiously with Harris and so two-thirds of the flayed Ashes attack was back on display.

The Indian batting lineup would provide the first real test for Pattinson and it would also present a chance for Siddle to show he has changed. This would also be Hilfenhaus first test match since the Ashes.

Four days on from Boxing Day, the Australia bowling trio of Siddle, Pattinson and Hilfenhaus had just taken 20 Indian wickets in one of the best team bowling display by the team in sometime. Each of the pacemen produced a fearsome spell of bowling. Rahul the Wall Dravid was breached three times, once by each of the pacemen which sums up how well each of the pacemen bowled especially considering the talk in the lead up to the match regarding adding a 5th bowling option.

So as we head into the New Year, the selectors will have a very tough task getting Ryan Harris back into the side and further along Pat Cummins. Question marks obviously still remain whether they can keep this going however the signs so far are very promising. By the end of this four match series against India, we should have a very good idea of where Siddle, Pattinson and Hilfenhaus are at assuming they remain as the first choice trio.



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Things are really starting to look great for Australia. I'm sure Ryan/Pat 's return from injury will strengthen the bowling unit on an overall scale *(granted they look in good nick)* :)
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That said, I wonder who'll actually get to play though.. :p
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Australia are looking good as a bowling department. They dismantled Indian batting and India have the strongest batting line up in the world. That is saying a lot:)
 
Yeah it's exciting. Siddle has finally become a man - hitting 140kph constantly and getting his length right. Thanks Craig McDermott :clap Siddle still doesn't move the ball a hell of a lot, but the last 3 pitches have all been well grassed and that's let him hit the seam and get some results. Pattinson is going to be a great asset - he's fast, aggressive and moves the ball enough - can bat too.

And Hilfenhaus I was to make particular mention of: he probably wasn't quite as good as his figures suggest, but he did something which I REALLY liked and that was attacking the stumps. A lot of his deliveries pitched on the line of the stumps, forcing the batsmen to play him and it paid off whenever he found movement. He can do that because of how close he is to the umpire. Hilfy also managed the relatively rare feat of bowling straight but not giving a lot of runs away to leg, and that was because the batsmen knew he can swing it away and didn't want to force across the line too much against the swing. That strategy is really good with India having lots of right handers. He also showed his fitness there when he pumped out the first 13 overs from his end and didn't seem fatigued at the end, that's very handy.

Questions about where Harris fits in are going to come up. I think it's a simple solution: here's where your rotation policy starts. We don't want to bowl anyone into the ground. Harris should come in for Siddle this Test, Pattinson rests in Perth and Hilfenhaus for Adelaide. Although in Perth there's a good case for 4 quicks. If Watson still isn't fit, then definitely all 4 should play. If Watson's fit and bowling, then 4 quicks isn't so important.
 
The Boxing Day pitch looked to be the most even pitch you will get between bat and ball so it definitely was a great sign to see each of the bowlers doing well on it especially when India were cruising along in the first innings with Tendulkar and Dravid then suddenly Siddle comes in and turns the match on it's head. Hilfy who was average on that day then came back in the morning where Mcdermott appeared to have a word and next thing you know he has Dravid bowled and didn't look back after that.

I'd probably keep the same attack for Sydney to build on the momentum these guys got from Boxing day and then probably Harris in for Lyon as it sounds like Watson won't be bowling even if he returns. Adelaide will be a tricky one as bowlers will definitely get bowled into the ground there so can you trust Harris to go that long, would you want Pattinson bowling that many overs.
 
This Australian pace group of Pat Cummins,James Pattinson,Ben Hilfenhaus,Peter Siddle have been tereffic with the ball and can also stay at the crease and score some runs too.Only their batting gets better like the good old days then they can beat any side in the world:thumbs
 
And just wait until we get Mitchell Johnson back :lol He's been forgotten VERY quickly... Actually he'll probably be better off going back to state cricket, he can play next season without the international pressure, try out his short run up and see where it takes him.

Glad you mentioned McDermott too - it seems he is way more effective than Troy Cooley ever was and with him coaching the bowlers I've got way more faith that the younger bowlers will 'get it' much more quickly.
 
And just wait until we get Mitchell Johnson back He's been forgotten VERY quickly... Actually he'll probably be better off going back to state cricket, he can play next season without the international pressure, try out his short run up and see where it takes him.

Just when I had forgot about that nightmare. We tried our best to replicate the Johnson effect by picking Starc and it's no surprise our best team bowling effort in a while came when we just completely got rid of any bowler called Mitchell in the team. I can't see him coming back into the Test side, he'll be 31 when he returns from injury and if Starc performs that will make it official.
 

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