The Ashes 2021: Five changes Australia must make to revive Test reputation

Australia was once a feared Test nation, but last summer’s loss to India on home soil exposed a weak underbelly. Here’s what must be done to fix it.

Joe Root and Tim Paine

Everyone is on trial in an Ashes summer but next season is different. It’s not just the players. It’s the entire system.

The hysteria over Cameron Bancroft’s ball tampering comments may be cricket’s headline of the month and add a spoonful of chilli flakes to the Ashes mix but soon enough deeper issues will be front and centre.

When a gifted but patched up India beat Australia in a Test series last summer Cricket Australia’s board and senior executives entered a period of deep reflection about the many provocative questions hanging in the air after Australia lost what at one point seemed the unlosable series.

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After India conquered fortress Gabba Australia were left with a number of issues to contemplate.

Is the time-honoured Sheffield Shield system still doing its job?

Is the contract system hitting the mark? Is it still possible for a young batsman to hone a Test match technique? Is the system tossing up enough leaders of men?

Are junior pathways working?

Everyone in power was severely chastened and in mild disbelief an Australian side leading 1-0 could be run down from behind by an Indian side missing half a team through injury.

Australia is a fine cricket nation with too many resources to slide down the Test ladder to the ranks of the near also-rans.

But that’s not the issue.

It’s whether Australia has a system that will enable it to match strides with super power India and even increasingly well organised England that is the big question.

Joe Root’s England head to Australia confident of competing across a five match Ashes series.

The loss was the second time in the three seasons Australia has been beaten by India at home.

If England wins next summer that would make it three out of four losing summers.

Expect a spring clean of the system if it happens, especially since the last time Australia lost a home Ashes a decade ago it launched the Argus Review even though it was only Australia’s second loss in its previous 32 home Test series.

Greg Chappell, who tagged Ian Healy, Steve Smith, David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne as future Test anchormen before they had done anything substantial in the five day game, has called for a radical overhaul in interviews with Cricket Australia’s website and RadioTAB.

Chappell’s argument is that if you started from scratch you would not construct the system Australia has at the moment.

Among issues which could come into a sharper focus next season are …

BATTING TECHNIQUE

Chappell maintains it is harder than it has ever been for a batsman to get their Test match technique in order given chopping and changing required by playing three forms of the game.

The stats confirm this.

In the decade since David Warner made his Test debut Australia has chosen 19 specialist batting debutants and none have played more than Joe Burns’ 23 Tests (Mitchell Marsh is classified an all-rounder).

Of course the likes of Marnus Labuschagne will romp past Burns’ mark but the stats still tell a damning tale.

Nine of the 19 have played five Tests or less.

For all of its luxurious resources at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane Australia has the uncomfortable feeling batsmen are still struggling to grasp the true fundamentals of Test cricket.

THE SHEFFIELD SHIELD

We all love the Shield but it’s 44 years since its format was expanded when Tasmania were included as the sixth team.

Is it time for another one or two teams or a player draft so all those NSW players who have nowhere to go can get a game in another state?

Should, as Chappell suggest, the Shield start much earlier so the bulk of it is completed before the Test series end in early January?

LEADERSHIP

Australia has never had more professional cricketers but craves charismatic leaders.

The old days of Australian teams stocked with three or four regular Sheffield Shield captains are gone and won’t be coming back.

Tim Paine has done a wonderful job as Test captain but Australia had to break with tradition to appoint a keeper captain and is contemplating challenging the history books again by appointing fast bowler Pat Cummins as the man who replaces him.

Marnus Labuschagne has taken to Test cricket like a duck to water – but he has been the exception in the last decade.

Where, apart from Steve Smith, are the batting captains? Are players over-managed to the point that their leadership ability is submerged?

Which brings us to …

THE DECKS

Australia has Test tours of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India next year where the spin bowlers will run wild yet where are the spinning decks in Australia?

Our batsmen and bowlers cannot prepare for such condition unless there is a bit of creative thinking in Australia and a deck such as Sydney is deliberately returned to its former dusty glory.

THE STEPPING STONE

India play three times as many A games as Australia which is why players like fast man Mohammad Siraj, who was branded a rookie when he made a spectacular debut against Australia last summer, was not a rookie at all.

He had played for India A in five different countries and was more than ready for the big occasion of an Australian Test.

Australia’s players could do with more A team exposure.

The pressure is on.