England mustn’t gloat at Aussies

12:00pm Friday 14th November 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

It’s always fun seeing the Aussies get a taste of their own medicine.

Australia, it seems, are a cricket team in crisis. About bloomin’ time too.

For the first time in 19 years, they lost a series by two Tests as India polished off the job in Nagpur on Monday.

Captain Ricky Ponting is getting the tabloid treatment over his tactics in that final game.

He has been accused of putting his own interests before the team’s by opting to beef up the over-rate against India’s tail-enders with part-time bowlers, rather than going in for the kill with the quickies.

Had the Aussies not sped up their game, Ponting faced a potential ban rather than the fine he was dished out.

As next summer’s Ashes homes into view, the cracks are appearing. There is no Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist or Shane Warne to bail them out either, though don’t bet against the master leg-spinner being coaxed out of retirement for one last pop at the Poms.

With or without Warne, Australia will still present a formidable barrier as England look to repeat 2005. But the fear factor has surely been blown away by the goings-on of the past few weeks in the sub-continent.

But as tempting as it may be, there will be no gloating in these quarters; not with England having now arrived in India to take Australia’s place.

Let’s see how we deal with the likes of Tendulkar, Dhoni, Sehwag and Singh before getting that open-top bus back in commission for another celebratory ride next summer.

India are compiling a side strong enough to match their position as one of the game’s emerging power-brokers. Compared with the next two Tests on England’s agenda, a home series with the Aussies could be viewed as child’s play.