Crash: The stinky batting statistic proving Aussie top order has failed miserably against India

Australia has been worried for several years that its once flawless factory which spat out top-shelf batting talent was suffering from a squeaky conveyor belt. This Test series confirms it.

The Aussie top order has been under siege from the Indians.

It’s the stinky statistic no one saw coming.

After two Tests against India just one Australian top six batsman has reached 50 – and he’s just been sacked.

This from Australia, the land of batting bruisers where rival attacks traditionally spend much of their tours looking at their shoelaces and having nightmares about the Kookaburra ball never doing enough for their peace of mind.

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Can Australia’s alpha male David Warner save the top order?

With David Warner missing Australia’s top order has been lacking an alpha male but the problems are deeper than that and go further back in time.

Australia has been worried for several years that its once flawless factory which spat out top shelf batting talent was suffering from a squeaky conveyor belt.

When Rod Marsh became Australian selection chairman way back in 2014, he said at his opening press conference the one thing that surprised him about Australian cricket was that, given its incomparable resources, it was not producing enough champion batsmen.

Warner and Steve Smith have held the fort for much of the past decade, with Marnus Labuschagne emerging at just the right time in a world where the once fierce focus on Test cricket has been distracted by the alluring wolf whistles from the white-ball game.

Greg Chappell said some years ago he had noticed a fundamental change in batting technique in the nets. Instead of young batsmen putting their foot towards the pitch of the ball as the coaching manual had demanded for a century or more, they were clearing that same leg away to create room to smash the ball, sacrificing poise for power.

It’s all about being better white-ball cricketers, which is a higher priority than it was a decade ago.

Mike Hussey, who says even the sound of modern net practice has changed with a lot more volcanic explosions than when he started, noted this trend as well.

India’s bowling attack has put Australia’s top order under the pump this series.

“I think T20 coming in has certainly changed techniques and training,’’ Fox Cricket commentator and Test star Hussey said.

“It is true that with T20 you want to keep your leg inside the line of the ball so you can free your arms to hit. Players practice hitting sixes now.

“They practice all sorts of crazy shots we would not have dreamt of playing, and we would have got scolded by our coaches if we had tried it.

“When I first started it was more about getting your head in line with the ball and your foot to the pitch of the ball, defending safely, taking the shine off the ball. It has changed a lot.’’

The emergence of Marnus Labuschagne has been welcome.

“In the era of T20 cricket, techniques are ever changing with batsman becoming more attacking.

“Scoring faster is a focus. I know at some of the junior carnivals Cricket Australia have there is a bigger focus on white ball cricket and scoring faster. When I was coming through it was all red ball cricket.

“My son has just started playing in these sorts of carnivals and he has played two 50-over games.

“There does not seem to be the same focus on the long games any more.’’

Mike Hussey reckons the sound in the nets is a little different these days. Picture: AFP

For this, Cricket Australia does not have to apologise.

Before the Big Bash started there was an alarming drop-off in junior numbers so having children playing gung ho white ball cricket is better than having them not playing at all.

Even Don Bradman would have seen the value of it because, in his final writings before his death, Bradman said cricket must stay in touch with the rhythms of society. A fast-paced world needs fast-paced cricket.

But there must be a cost for the new way and it is fewer batsmen with cast iron techniques and the patience to let go dangerous balls.

Former Australian and South African Test batsman Kepler Wessels returned from South Africa to live in Brisbane a couple of years ago and immediately noted that Australian techniques were not what they were when he left in the mid-1980s.

“They used to be so simple,’’ Wessels said.

The old fashioned Test match warrior with the four-square technique and the endless patience have become harder to find.

Australia’s challenge is to make sure they do not become extinct.