After Australias recent test series victory alot of attention and media media focus had been on 20 year old Phil Hughes who in hes debut test series has amassed 350 runs @ 87.5 vidicating the selectors bold decison to pick the young player and silence the very few Matthew Hayden should still be in the test side.
But is it the Batting and the inclusion of Hughes and North that Australias stunning turn around or is it the Bowling.
In the Sydney, Johannesburg & Durban tests that Australias won South Africa has only managed to make over 300 on 4 out of 6 occasions while in there wins in Perth & Melbourne managed to score 400 twice, not including a 181/1 in Melbourne to wrap up the match.
South Africas wins in both Perth and Melbourne were won cause of the sheer fact Australia didn't have the fire power or balance in their bowling attack to truly test the South Africans over 5 days.
fast forward to march and youll see that in the past three tests a new look bowling attack including the likes of Peter Siddle, Mitchell Johnson, Ben Hilfenhaus, Andrew McDonald and Doug Bollinger have worn down the South Africans of Good Fast swing bowling with the new ball and super tight bowling througout the innings.
in those three tests the bowlers returns have been
Peter Siddle 19 wickets @ 16.63
Mitchell Johnson 16 @ 23.13
Ben Hilfenhaus 5 @ 46.47
Andrew McDonald 8 @ 24.75 with an economy rate of 2.08.
Looking forward to the Ashes assuming both Brett Lee and Stuart Clark are fit who in the side are they going to replace?
Brett Lee in his old age bowls low to mid 140kms and in close to 10 years of international cricket has never been able to swing the ball, Peter Siddle on the other hand bowls high 140kms and in only 6 tests has developed both an inswinger and an outswinger, added to that Siddle doesn't seem to lose his pace throughout the day and has a happy knack of picking up that partnership breaking wicket. In only 6 tests Peter Siddle and at 24 years of age is close to undroppable.
Ben Hilfenhaus however hasn't quite established himself as undroppable but his performance in the two tests to date have shown why he is a must for the ashes, he is the first quality genuine outswing bowler Australia has had since Terry Alderman, if you want a history lesson on why this is significant coming into the ashes, Terry captured 40 wickets in both the 1981 and 1989 ashes tour of england after missing the 1985 tour with injury.
Swing bowling is what killed the Aussies in the 2005 both by not having one and not being able to play the likes of Simon Jones, Matt Hoggard and Freddie Flintoff.
Stuart Clark by rights should be in the Ashes team come July however in my opinion i'm not so sure. Clark's contribution to the australian team since his arrival in 2006 has been exemplery tours of South Africa and an Ashes tour of Australia showed what a class bowler he is, yet since the West Indies tour of 2008 Clark hasn't been that same bowler, with cronic elbow problems that show no sign of healing and at 33 years of age maybe its time to put an end to Clark's short but fruitful test career.
But is that the right thing to do? Andrew McDonald who is currently occupying that medium seamer position has been serviceable without being outstanding his test career economy rate is a staggering 2.08 and his 8 wickets have come at very handy times, but there must be doubts on his front line status? can a bowling all rounder at state level become one of the four quicks Australia pin there Ashes hopes on?
Thats why Stuart Clark is a must to be in the squad for the Ashes a proven Bowler who could come in and provide a decent account of himself for maybe one or two tests if the McDonald experiment doesnt work.
It's an intresting time coming up to the Ashes and it will be interesting to see whether the selectors will opt to for the new exciting attack or the old proven one of yesteryear.
