From panic to precision: How Australia became the world’s best Test side

Momentarily there were nerves. Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane were finding the middle of the bat, the ball seemed not to be doing much, and Marnus Labuschagne coaxed a speculative caught behind review from captain Pat Cummins.

In the recent past, that may have been the start of an Australian panic and perhaps even an Indian miracle. Instead, Scott Boland found the perfect tempter for Kohli, Steve Smith clasped a terrific catch, and Cummins found himself accepting the World Championship trophy little more than an hour later after Australia triumphed by 209 runs over India at the Oval.

Australia on top of the world.Credit: Getty Images

It was altogether fitting that Australia sealed the formal title as world’s best Test team by putting together a clinical day-five display at the Oval to close out a match they had dominated throughout with a combination of sweat and flair.

That’s because it had been a failure in similar scenarios that had long prevented a highly talented generation of players from assuming the place in the pantheon that their collective ability – and a well-resourced and organised cricket system – demanded.

Having shaken off those doubts by trouncing India over the past five days, the next challenge looms in less than a week’s time: England in an Ashes series, a contest the Australians have not won away from home since 2001.

The fourth innings wobbles had started at Headingley in 2019, courtesy of Ben Stokes. Sydney and Brisbane followed in 2021, and Karachi in 2022.

Each was an instance of the Australians driving the game to a position from which victory was close to inevitable on a statistical basis, only to see the advantage squandered.

All scenarios were slightly different, but the ultimate truth to all was that whether through a loss of composure, missed chances or poor tactics, the teams of Tim Paine and Pat Cummins had not been able to finish the job.

Most hurtfully, the draw at the SCG and the loss at the Gabba enabled an injury-struck Indian side to squeeze past an Australian side at more or less full strength. It was those results, plus an over rate penalty in the same series, that cost Australia a place in the inaugural decider.

Much of the past three years were dominated by an ugly and drawn-out departure for Justin Langer as head coach, having held the role since the aftermath of the Newlands scandal in 2018.

At the time, Cricket Australia’s decision-makers came to agree with the view of senior players and staff that Langer’s hotblooded, volatile ways had taken the team as far as he could. What was needed for “the next phase” was greater ownership of matters by the players, and a more even-tempered mentor to work with Cummins.

Langer’s exit was messy, and created an enormous amount of bitterness between the former Test opener’s generation and those that followed. Not just the current players but members of support staff, including Langer’s replacement Andrew McDonald and selection chair George Bailey.

Australia celebrate their 2022 series victory in Pakistan.Credit: AP

But there was unquestionable growth for the team in Langer’s wake, starting on a tour of Pakistan where the Karachi stalemate was shrugged off so effectively that Australia won the decisive final Test in Lahore and won their first series in Pakistan since 1998.

Some undulations were evident in Sri Lanka later in 2022 and in India in February and March, but the overall trend was one of incremental improvement without drastic changes in approach.

Scott Boland at the MCG in 2021.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Where England unleashed “Bazball” over the same period, dramatically recasting the way Test cricket might be played, Cummins, McDonald and company concentrated on creating an environment in which individuals could find their best paths to culminate in team success.

Preparation and planning has been very much tailored to each player, with some formidable results. The best exemplars during the period have been Usman Khawaja and Travis Head with the bat and Scott Boland with the ball, two mature cricketers putting their best together in their mid-30s and another just entering his prime after a long apprenticeship.

Khawaja has lauded things like players being allowed to prepare in their own ways - pointing out how he has no longer been pushed into excessive warmups – and Head’s clarity of thought about playing aggressively can only have come from a calm backroom.

Boland, meanwhile, was made to feel, deeply, that he did not have to deviate from his domestic best for Victoria to succeed on the international stage.

The proof of these methods can be seen in the aggregates. Khawaja has been the world’s most prolific batter of the past two years, Head was player of the match at the Oval for a scintillating day one century, and Boland ended the Oval Test with 33 wickets at 14.57 during the cycle, capping things off with the spell that finally broke India’s back, claiming Kohli and then Ravindra Jadeja in three balls.

If Khawaja, Head and Boland have been the breakthrough performers, the reassuring displays of other seasoned campaigners have proven that improvement can always be summoned with the right drivers. Lyon’s effectiveness in the closing innings of matches has lifted significantly, epitomised by his efforts to wrap up the championship final.

Most pleasing of all, is something that transcends the results. Five years since Newlands, Australia’s supremacy has been achieved with an almost complete absence of rancour or sledging.

The bluff and bluster of past generations has been replaced by the calm precision of Boland, the batting aggression of Head, and the broad smile of a very proud Cummins.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.