Nathan Hauritz role in the Australian test side. Should he really be playing?

[sami ullah khan]

^English attack you are talking about had bowlers that could reverse the ball. I don't think current Australians attack has yet mastered this art and therefore will struggle on flat pitches.

 

[ferg512]

Andrew McDonald maybe??

 

[War]

^English attack you are talking about had bowlers that could reverse the ball. I don't think current Australians attack has yet mastered this art and therefore will struggle on flat pitches.

Except for Johnson all the others have shown @ some point in their test careers to date the ability to reverse-swing the ball. Which argues well for the near future, with them being able to master it.

Plus although reverse swing is a KEY prerequisite that fast bowlers would need to bowling on flat wickets. The fact that on a flat Mohali pitch, the quicks almost took 20 IND wickets, without extrating any real reverse. They just utilized the low bounce that inevitably occurs on wearing last day wickets - which can result in alot of LBWS. Along with great stamina & heart to find extra bounce, which would adeuately make up for the lack of spinner capable of doing the usual 5th day bowling workload.

 

[Robelinda]

Becoming a fan of a 4 man pace attack with Harris in there, cant have 4 guys all with huge run ups, Harris fits good. Or maybe Smith in there somewhere, but now that Watson surely isnt the answer to our allrounder search, he just looks gone. Maybe he'll spring back to life in Aussie condisions, he does look like he's working solely on moving the ball at a slower space in India. Horrie might have to go, unless he really ties the Poms down in the first couple of tests, but we'll need the pace bowlers REALLY firing to make up for his lack of wickets.

 

[War]

Yea i was about to talk about Watson. Since he got that injury before the 1st test vs NZ earlier this year, his bowling in all formats has this lazy look to it.

Yea he took those two 5 for vs PAK in ENG. But PAKs batting was so poor at times, you really can't judge that well TBH. He certainly this year especially in tests, hasn't looked the same with the ball as he was during the last AUS summer.

I presume its injury. But their sorta of lies the danger of relying of Watson as the 4th seamer as part of a 5-man pace attack, especially with no effective spinner. The risk of him either breaking down with the ball or being off colour due to injury would affect the balance of the bowling attack.

 

[Symptom_Control]

I think Watson has improved his bowling a great deal. He was criticised for being one-dimensional, gun-barrel straight and he went off and now is able to swing the new and old ball. Hard to get that much bowling out of an opening batsman. Kallis is the only all rounder who has succeeded in the top order for very long.

Aside from that the recent performances suggest to me that its time to cut the losses and give the young blokes a chance. I'd drop North and Hussey and I'd not be precious about Clarke either: Hughes, Smith, Khawaja and Ferguson are the future and at least promise great things. I thinks its time to bite the bullet like we did in the mid 80s and give a core group of talented young players with good temperament an extended run. If what Hauritz dished up in India is the best we can do for a spinner then I'd also rather see McDonald nagging away from one end with the keeper up at the stumps. Pace-wise, I'd hope the selectors only consider Hilfenhaus as the only dead certainty. The rest should be down to form only from now on.

Symptom_Control added 4 Minutes and 56 Seconds later...

Think you guys are a bit too pessimistic about the pace attack to be honest.

All i will say is this. If England 4-man pace attack circa 2004-2006 of Hoggard/Harmison/Flintoff/Jones could enjoy the success world wide as a bowling pace quartet. I see no reason why Hilfenhaus/Bollinger/Johnson/Harris or Siddle cant.

Alas our guys are nowhere near as good as Flintoff/Harmison and Jones at their peak. Its a real shame for the game that England wasnt able to keep that attack together for longer.

 

[angryangy]

He kept remodelling his action due to injuries and eventually it paid off. It's been suggested in the past that he was an example of over-coaching, but he does seem to be an effective learner.

The problem now is that he looks like he doesn't bowl much. Not so much in that lumbering run up, but in a general impression. Not bowling will eventually make you bowl worse, so if you actually intend to bowl, it's difficult to cut back for the sake of fatigue.

 

[Robelinda]

Its sure getting hard to watch us lose so many series, knowing we have guys at home who are pounding down the selectors door with big runs. I'm sure no-one wants to wait for Khawaja and Ferguson etc to reach 29 0r 30 before they are selected.

 

[War]

Alas our guys are nowhere near as good as Flintoff/Harmison and Jones at their peak. Its a real shame for the game that England wasnt able to keep that attack together for longer.

I cant certainly see Bollinger coming close to matching Flintoff efforts with the ball for sure.

Harmison peak was those famous 7 tests of his in 2004 vs WI & NZ. After that he was super inconsistent & was crap on flat wickets. Johnson a similar hit-the-deck type seamer is already wayyy better than Harmo. Johnson just took a 5 wicket-haul in India, if you ever saw Harmo bowl in the sub-continent he was woeful.

Jones of course was special in his ability to reverse swing the ball. None of the AUS quicks may ever be good as him in that facet.

Plus of Hilfenhaus is better all-rounder swing bowler than Hoggard even @ his peak. Only a matter of time before he overtakes him.

As a overall 4-man attack i can certainly see Bollinger/Hilfy/Johnson/Harris or Siddle matching & potentially bettering that ENG quartet.

But yes it was shame the ENG quartet couldn't last longer. ENG could conceivably retained the Ashes in 06/07 & even been the best team in the world post 05 Ashes if they had stayed together.

 

[angryangy]

Yeah, I don't think Harmison is that hard to match. At his best, he was a wrecking ball for average batsmen with cement feet, but when it came to touring South Africa or Australia, his short pitched bowling met stronger walls. His severe lack of penetration was famously blamed on homesickness and I guess when the 'Harmy' entered the lexicon, that claim was justified, but he wasn't unequivocally bad at tours. He might have been a bit better in home conditions, as was the case at Lords in 2005, but the fact is that two thirds of his home games were against some of the more easily intimidated sides, while two thirds of his away games were against strong opponents.

 

[aussie1st]

Australian news: Ashley Mallett backs Nathan Hauritz, but says England have Ashes edge | Australia Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

Hes backing Hauritz but wants Smith for North. Guess I could live with that although Hauritz better improve soon. 4 seamers still seems the best option with Smith in the top 7 to provide his leg spin.

 

[AngryPixel]

Isn't it a bit too harsh on Haurtiz? Even great spinners find it difficult to bowl to Indian batsman(read:Warne,Murali), Hauritz is not even a bit close to that league.

 

[War]

Australian news: Ashley Mallett backs Nathan Hauritz, but says England have Ashes edge | Australia Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

Hes backing Hauritz but wants Smith for North. Guess I could live with that although Hauritz better improve soon. 4 seamers still seems the best option with Smith in the top 7 to provide his leg spin.

HAAAA @ Mallet & Bright. Some of these former players make me laugh with such dumb comments.

 

[Gurjot95]

Isn't it a bit too harsh on Haurtiz? Even great spinners find it difficult to bowl to Indian batsman(read:Warne,Murali), Hauritz is not even a bit close to that league.

This thread was created before Ind-Aus series so obviously it's not only against India he performs badly.

Hoping to see Steven Smith next time. He is handy with bat as well.

 

[War]

Isn't it a bit too harsh on Haurtiz? Even great spinners find it difficult to bowl to Indian batsman(read:Warne,Murali), Hauritz is not even a bit close to that league.

You do know other spinner below the league of Warne/Murali in recent years such as Greg Matthews, Shaun Udal, Jason Krejza, Nicky Boje, Paul Adams, Ashley Giles, Danish Kaneria for eg. Have gone to India & have been a consistent threat for their captains of wearing/turning wickets in India right?